This led the church and locals to erect a sanctuary and Franciscan convent at the site in 1399; in 1406, to thank the virgin for stemming the plague that had assaulted the city, Francesco I Gonzaga, captain of Mantua, commissioned erection of the present basilica church with designs attributed to the architect to the Mantuan court, Bartolino da Novara.

The decorations are peculiar for a church, in that all along the walls the niches shelter individual statues donated by those who claim their prayers to the virgin were answered, including persons depicted facing various forms of capital punishment.

The church was also near the site of the Battle of Curtatone and Montanara on 29 May 1848, where raw Tuscan and Neapolitan volunteers engaged the Austrian forces under General Josef Radetzky during the First Italian War of Independence.

In these fields of Curtatone and Montanara on May 29, 1848, the Austrian Marshal Radetzky attacked with his powerful army a handful of young Tuscans completely deprived of any support, resisted for seven hours and finally, exhausted of ammunition, surrendered in Goito and Castellucchio.

The enemies did not dare to pursue them and of the Tuscans their fellow citizen General de Laugier, blessing and memory to the martyrs of patriotic love.A plaque by Napoleone Sforsi dedicated to two of his brothers, Temistocle e Aristide, from Livorno who died at the bridge of Osone, laments that the King Charles Albert of Sardinia, was unable enter the church and evacuate the wounded therein during his retreat, blaming the locals who feared the Austrian army.