Chiesa di Sant'Agostino

Sant'Agostino is the destination's layered church: Romanesque and Gothic-Lombard bones, a Renaissance apse, a single Baroque nave, and a facade of 1746 drawn by Alfonso Torreggiani. Inside hang a Guercino Saint Apollinaris and a Palma il Giovane Madonna della Ghiara — a short list that few churches of the city can match.

Why it matters

The municipal portal traces origins to the eighth century, when the church was first dedicated to San Apollinare, and the building still displays each campaign it has lived through. Sant'Agostino brings together Reggio Emilia's architectural phases and two important paintings that remain in situ.

What to notice

The Baroque facade of 1746, executed by Giovan Battista Cattani on Torreggiani's design, carries statues of San Nicola da Tolentino and San Guglielmo carved by Antonio Schiassi in the eighteenth century. The bell tower rose much earlier, built by Antonio Casotti between 1452 and 1493, and the apses follow a project by Filippo Zoboli of 1495. Gaspare Vigarani reshaped the interior into today's single nave between 1651 and 1666. The church's paintings include Guercino's San Apollinare in the left transept and Palma il Giovane's Madonna della Ghiara in the second chapel on the left. Paolo Emilio Besenzi's stuccoes of the four Doctors of the Church surround the presbytery, alongside a fourteenth-century Madonna and Child, the oldest image in the church.

Context and history

The Augustinian dedication overlays an older foundation, and the conventual complex that once surrounded the church has largely dissolved into the streets near Piazza San Francesco. The parish today bears a triple title — Santi Agostino, Stefano Protomartire e Teresa d'Avila — also absorbing the nearby Santo Stefano.