The pilgrim church near Nova Štifta at Dolenjsko, one of the key monuments as regards the development of baroque in Slovenia, used to be in scholarly literature linked with St. Mary’s church in Lodi near Milano-. The author is trying to find stylistically and locally more adequate models for its coming into existence and calls .attention to Sanmicheli’s church S. Madonna della Campagna in the suburb of Verona. The key for understanding the kindred between the two buildings lies in the difficult constructional problems concerning the arching of the big central area; the Verona church is outwardly round but octagonal on the inside while the unknown builder in Nova Štifta, in opposition to the round model, built an octagonal building from the very beginning. Many a thing can be explained as well by taking into consideration another extremely important church for the European 17th century, Longhen’s S. Maria della Salute in Venice.