Modène, Église Sant'Agostino

14th-19th century

Address

largo Porta Sant'Agostino, 41121 Modena

Tag place

Description

Modena, St. Augustine Church

St. Augustine Church started to be built on the foundations of a former building in 1338. The church was entrusted to friars of the Order of Saint Augustine who funded a convent next to it and was chosen by Duke Alfonso IV to give his father Francis I his burial siege in 1659. On that occasion, a great short-term system celebrating all the saints, kings and queens related to the Duchy family was designed by Gaspare Vigarani. From the following year, Gian Giacomo Monti started to transform the existing building. According to the Duke’s will, the building had to become the Este Pantheon that is to say the place where the dynasty would celebrate social and religious ceremonies like marriages and funerals. The interior decoration had to convert in durable materials the short-lasting system built by Vigarani the preceding year. For that reason, the internal space was isolated from the masonry structure and was decorated with a wide molding system full of statues and reliefs, with some lateral altars and with a wooden vault covered by paintings. All the altarpieces once decorating the altars have been lost. Although it underwent some important restoration works during the 19^th century, the wooden roof is still intact. The vault is enriched by frescoes painted by some artists coming from the duchies of Modena and Sassuolo: Francesco Stringa, Olivier Dauphin, Sigismondo Caula and Angelo Michele Colonna. Gian Giacomo Monti and Baldassarre Bianchi contributed to the realization of the frescoes that decorate the vault and the presbytery. The inside of the church also hosts the Compianto by Antonio Begarelli, which was once situated in St. Bernardino’s church. In 1881, the municipality of Modena partially bought the church and the adjacent convent, which was transformed in Hotel of the poor at the end of the 18^th century.