The Church of Sant' Agostino in Rome

Sant' Agostino

The 15th century church of Sant' Agostino was built for Cardinal d'Estouteville by Giacomo da Pietrasanta. Sant' Agostino in Campo Marzio, to give the church its full name, is dedicated to St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), whose mother St Monica is buried here. The inscription on the façade proclaims: GVILLERMVS · DE · ESTOVTEVILLA · EPISC · OSTIEN · CARD · ROTHOMAGEN · S · R · E · CAMERARIVS · FECIT · MCCCCLXXXIII (William d'Estouteville, Bishop of Ostia, Cardinal of Rouen of the Holy Roman Church, Camerlengo, built this in 1483).

On the counter-facade of the church stands the Madonna del Parto (Madonna of Childbirth, 1521), a much-venerated statue by Jacopo Tatti (1486-1570), better known as Jacopo Sansovino. Tatti was the pupil of Andrea Sansovino (c. 1467-1529), whose name he adopted.

In the first chapel on the left is the painting of the Madonna del Loreto (1604), also known as the Madonna dei Pellegrini, by Caravaggio (1571-1610).

The statue of the Madonna and Child with St Anne, in front of the third pillar on the left of the nave, is the work of Andrea Sansovino. The fresco of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah is by Raphael (1483-1520). Both statue and fresco are part of the funerary monument to Johannes Goritz.

The ornate high altar (1628), the work of Orazio Turriani (1578-1657), enshrines a tiny Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary, which was rescued from the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople when the city was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.

At the back of the apse, above the high altar, is a 19th century stained glass window depicting St Augustine Defeating Heresy.

In the chapel to the left of the choir is the tomb of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine.

The frescoes in the dome are by the Roman painter-cum-architect Pietro Gagliardi (1809-90), who, in 1855, was given the commission to decorate the interior of the church by Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-78). The frescoes depict Christ the Redeemer accompanied by the twelve Apostles and the four Evangelists. Gagliardi also painted the frescoes on the ceiling and pillars of the nave.

The church of Sant' Agostino boasts several very fine funerary monuments, such as the ones to cardinals Giuseppe Renato Imperiali and Lorenzo Imperiali, which can be found in the transepts.