Basilica di Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio

The Basilica of Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio is a Roman Renaissance church with works by Caravaggio, Raphael and Andrea Sansovino.

Why it matters

The church preserves the art and history of an Augustinian community established in Rome in the thirteenth century. Its paintings and sculpture reflect the religious life of a neighbourhood church as well as the artistic patronage of Renaissance and Baroque Rome.

What to notice

Caravaggio's Madonna dei Pellegrini, dated 1604, depicts two pilgrims before the Virgin. Raphael's 1512 fresco of the Prophet Isaiah is accompanied by two putti. Jacopo Sansovino's Madonna del Parto and Andrea Sansovino's group of Saint Anne with Mary and the Child are among the church's notable sculptures. The high altar, designed by Bernini and executed by Orazio Torriani in 1627, enshrines a Byzantine icon.

Context and history

Augustinians completed an earlier church on the site by 1420. Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville commissioned a rebuilding that raised the church above the flood-prone street; the work is associated with Giacomo da Pietrasanta and Sebastiano da Firenze. Luigi Vanvitelli remodelled the interior and convent between 1746 and 1750. The church also contains the tomb of Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, and that of Contessina de' Medici.