Chiesa dei Cappuccini

The church known as the Capuchins, also called S. Maria Fossa Dragone, is located within the municipal cemetery.

The church stands along the axis of the ancient Roman road Postumia, on the Soave-Monteforte-San Bonifacio route. Built in the Romanesque style, it takes its name from the now lost convent of Capuchin friars who lived here from 1568 to 1769.

It was constructed in a simple Romanesque style in the first half of the 1300s and underwent various structural modifications in the following centuries. The church saw significant renovations in the second half of the 1400s, giving it its current appearance. The facade is simple, with a gabled roof and a Gothic door topped by a round window with sloped outlines; the south wall bears a sundial. The interior presents a single nave that culminates in the triumphal arch leading to the apse.

The inner walls were frescoed mostly in a Byzantine style, and the portal was reconstructed with marble borders. Of interest are the cycles of frescoes found on all the walls except for the southern one; these date back to different eras, attributed to the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.

This church housed the remarkable image of the "Madonna del Drago," a wooden sculpture from the 15th century, now preserved in the parish church.

The name Fossa Dragone seems to come from a local legend, according to which the Madonna freed the people from the presence of a dragon that terrorized them. For this reason, an image of the Blessed Virgin in prayer, holding a dragon under her feet, was carved in wood.

In reality, the dragon symbolizes a real fear, that of the flooding of the Alpone, a turbulent stream that has repeatedly caused devastation in the past: a risk that still does not seem entirely averted today.