Access to the Oratory of San Valentino is via a wide staircase inside the Abbey Cathedral of S. Tecla, located to the left of the High Altar, or from an external entrance that leads to the courtyard, near the bell tower.
It was commissioned in 1627 by the Venerable Confraternity of Death and Prayer of Este.
The original core, built above the sacristy of the Cathedral, consists of a rectangular nave that welcomes the visitor. It was enlarged in 1687 with the addition of the Choir, a large square room of about 90 square meters.
The building today consists of two large rooms with a ribbed vault. It was renovated in the atrium and nave in 1711 and underwent a complete restoration from 1978 to 1982.
It was St. Gregory Barbarigo, in May 1674, who presided over the solemn ceremony during which the body of a ''Valentino martyr'', from the Catacombs of Santa Ciriaca in Rome, was transferred to the Oratory, and from that moment it was called ''Oratorio di San Valentino''.
Inside, there are 23 large paintings: the first documented group from 1632 and attributed to the painter Girolamo Zurlo, originally from the Vicenza area, representing the narrative cycle of the Passion of Jesus; the second group, made on commission from the faithful or for celebratory reasons, can be dated from the late 1600s to the first half of the 1700s.
The stalls and the walnut backs present in the Choir, crafted by carvers Antonio Cattani and Giovanni di Rossi and dating back to 1689, were reserved for members of the confraternities and their acts of piety.
Opened on the occasion of the annual commemoration of San Valentino and on the initiative of the Parish of the Cathedral.
