The church dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie, known as Santa Libera, was built in 1470 in the area of the then St. Francis Road. This area had acquired great importance thanks to the Addizione wanted by Borso d’Este, with the urban expansion consisting mainly of noble palaces and the decoration of Palazzo Schifanoia with the famous cycle of the Months.
Until the end of the 1700s the church remained consecrated, then it had different uses, was finally restored in 1984.
Today it is home to the Civic Lapidary, whose collection comes both from the excavations of the Voghenza necropolis and from donations over the centuries.
Among the stone materials on display are: the sarcophagus of the Aurelii (3rd century AD) and that of the child Neon, returned from Voghenza; the altar of Fronto and the cippus of Octavius, from the Po di Primaro; and the nucleus of the Gambulaga stelae.
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