In fact, the demolitions of the ancient gate, which was destroyed to make way for the new fortification system that still exists today, led to the destruction of all the decorations except for that part of the wall where the painting was located, which fell to the ground, remaining almost intact.

The event, which the citizens of Ferrara and the duke himself considered miraculous, led to an ever-increasing veneration for the sacred image, so much so that the head of the Virgin was completed by an anonymous painter, who made “the entire figure with her Son standing” and walled in a spur of the nearby rampart by order of Alfonso I. The event, followed by more and more prodigies, led to the construction of the Church of the Visitation, or Madonna della Porta di Sotto, known as “La Madonnina,” completed in 1536.

The building, with a Greek-cross plan with three naves, is today one of the most interesting architectural testimonies of Ferrara in the early 16th century, despite later alterations to the façade, attributable to Alberto Schiatti and attributable to post-earthquake restoration work in 1570. The church, expropriated in 1810 along with the convent, became state property, and in 1813 it was purchased by the Municipality of Ferrara and reopened for worship. Although, as a result of Napoleonic spoliations, it lost much of its ancient furnishings, it still preserves some interesting evidence of early 17th-century Ferrara painting in particular the St. Charles Borromeo by Carlo Bononi and the Visitation by Scarsellino.