Rossi Oratory

The 1800’s style Oratorio Rossi, in neo-classical style and marked by a picturesque cypress tree, is dedicated to San Giuseppe and to San Sebastiano the martyr. The façade, facing west, is the work of architect Filippo Antolini. In 1820 the oratory was entrusted to the Rossi family who a villa in the vicinity and since that year had used it as a family crypt. The interior is divided into three areas: in the centre there is the chapel with an altar, in the area to the right there are the burial niches where the members of the Rossi family are buried, the area to the left houses the vestry. The oratory was part of a residential complex that included the park and the main villa, which were destroyed during the encampment of the war front on the Senio river, as the Senio flows not too far from the oratory. On the 17th December, after the liberation of Faenza, the Germans made the decision to blow up Villa Rossi of Biancanigo with the adjacent farmhouses for strategic purposes. Eighteen people died: nine members of the Montanari family and nine of the Cristoferi family, seven of which were children. In addition, another three members of the Cristoferi family were killed amongst the ruins of the Crociaro di Sopra house. With the massacre at Villa Rossi the war, which had just arrived on the Senio, began in all of its bitterness.