The church began as a circular chapel with a small dome, dedicated to the Madonna of the Misericordia, a Marian veneration meant specially to spare a community from the bubonic plague. The chapel appears to have been erected by 1450. The apse was frescoed with a depiction of the Madonna with St John the Baptist and St Catherine sheltering the faithful with her mantle.
The chapel of the crucifix had a wooden icon, now found in the parish church of San Marone Martire in town. The church was reconsecrated in 1522, but by the 17th-century it had suffered water damage. It also contains a wooden statue depicting St Roch and St Sebastians also patrons of those afflicted by the plague.[1]
It houses a large fresco depicting the Last Judgement (1548) by Orfeo Presutti, a pupil of Vincenzo Pagani.[2]
