Sant'Anna is a Gothic style,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish church, located at Via Scalabrini #83 in

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

, Region of

Emilia Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 million. Emilia-Romagna is one of ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

A small church at the site titled ''Santa Maria di Betlem'' was associated with a nearby convent of the Umiliati. In 1334, the property passed to an order of

Servite The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary (; abbreviation: OSM), is one of the five original mendicant orders in the Roman Catholic Church. It includes several branches of friars (priests and brothers), contemplative nun ...

nuns, who rebuilt the structures and dedicated the church to

St Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's nam ...

. It remained with this order until 1788, when the church was assigned to Oratorian priests. By 1806, parts of the convent were used as a jail for women and an orphanage for boys. The prison was soon closed, and by 1819, the orphanage moved to the monastery of San Savino. In 1841, the convent then became use as a hospital and hospice run by

Carmelites The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

. In 1868, the church took the role of local parish temple from the church of San Salvatore. The apse had been enlarged in 1500 to host the cloistered nuns during services. The construction of six side altars in the 17th-century caused the gothic-style

lancet windows A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

to be walled up. The facade of the church was not completed until 1925 using designs by Camillo Guidotti. The belltower was not erected until 1937 using designs by Pietro Berzolla. Much of the interior church decoration is from the past two centuries. According to tradition, the monastery complex hosted a 14th-century wooden icon and painting of San Rocco. The ''Via Crucis'' canvases were painted (1892) by Paolo Bozzini. The stained glass window of St Roch on the facade was completed in 1925, while the side windows were completed only after 1980. The four stained glass windows of the apse designed by the Peresson firm from Milan, by their artist

Trento Longaretti Trento Longaretti (27 September 1916 – 7 June 2017) was an Italian painter. He studied at the Brera Academy in the 1930s, where he was taught by renowned artists, including painters Aldo Carpi and Pompeo Borra, and sculptors Francesco Mess ...

of Bergamo and depict ''Nativity'', ''Baptism'', ''Crucifixion'', and the ''Mourning of the Death of Jesus Christ''. In church on right is a fresco on ''Resurrection of Christ'' by

Bernardino Gatti Bernardino Gatti (c.1495 – 22 February 1576) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, active mainly in Parma and Cremona. He is also commonly called il Sojaro. He was born in or near Pavia or Cremona. His early apprenticeship is unclear, ...

.Tagliaferri, ''Nuovissima Guida''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anna Piacenza Roman Catholic churches in Piacenza 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Gothic architecture in Emilia-Romagna