Oratorio di San Desiderio

The Oratory of San Desiderio in Pistoia is a plain rectangular hall dominated by a large sixteenth-century fresco by Sebastiano Vini. Its changing institutional uses contrast with the survival of that devotional image.

Why it matters

The building links a medieval religious foundation with later hospital, monastic and secular uses. Its art preserves different phases of decoration within a modest architectural shell.

What to notice

Vini's fresco depicts the legendary martyrdom of Acacius and the Ten Thousand Martyrs on Mount Ararat. Its Venetian colour and crowded narrative give the end wall a strong presence. Detached frescoes of Saint Agnes and Mary Magdalene belong to the late-fourteenth-century Pistoiese tradition.

Context and history

A Benedictine convent church is documented from 1084. Suppression in 1440 led to hospital use; Poor Clares occupied the site from 1516. A former ceiling of canvases by Passignano, Francesco Curradi and Matteo Rosselli later gave way to the timber-truss roof and skylight. Following private ownership and use as a timber store, Alessandrina Gelli, widow Rospigliosi, donated the building to the State in 1910.