The Church of Santa Maria della Visitazione whose name derives from the visit of the Virgin Mary to Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was originally built on a bridge on the Reno Canal.

Its foundation dates back to the plague of 1527, when the people of  Bologna gathered together in prayer before the image of the Virgin Mary painted on a tabernacle on the Lame Bridge (“lame” means “blades” in Italian).   When the plague was defeated, the church was built in order to safeguard the miraculous image. It was managed first by the Confraternita dei Devoti and later, from 1764, by the Confraternita dei Poveri di San Rocco.