Chiesa del Gesù, Renaissance church in Ferrara, Italy.

The Chiesa del Gesù is a Renaissance church in Ferrara designed with a measured facade by architect Alberto Schiatti that follows classical proportional systems characteristic of the period. The building features the restrained geometric forms and functional design typical of early Jesuit architecture in Italy.

The Jesuits built the church in 1570 to a design by Alberto Schiatti, possibly with Giovanni Tristano. After the order was suppressed in 1773 it passed to the Somaschi fathers, who held it until the Jesuits returned in 1814. In 1933 Archbishop Ruggero Bovelli moved the Priory of San Michele here, and the dedication changed again in 1986. Bombing damaged the church in 1944.

The terracotta group Mourning Over Christ by Guido Mazzoni, known in Ferrarese dialect as Pianzun d'la Rosa, stood in Santa Maria della Rosa until that bomb-damaged church was demolished in the 1950s. It was moved here after the 1933 exhibition of Ferrarese Renaissance art, and now sits left of the entrance.

The church stands on piazzetta Torquato Tasso, at Via Borgoleoni 56, in the historic centre of Ferrara. The adjoining former Jesuit convent was converted into a courthouse in 1985, so the church entrance is reached from the small piazza rather than through the convent. The organ above the main entrance, built by Gianni Ferraresi in 1976, has 25 registers.

The tomb of Duchess Barbara of Austria, wife of Alfonso II d'Este, stands behind the main altar; she died in 1572, and the mausoleum was finished twenty years later, attributed to Francesco Casella on a design by the court antiquarian Pirro Ligorio.