Sant'Agostino is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-style

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church located on Via Scevola Riceputi #1, in

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was o ...

, region of

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

, Italy.

History

A church and convent at the site was erected in 1252, which was manned by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Friars (Padri Riformati dell'Osservanza). Violante da Montefeltro, wife of

Malatesta Novello Domenico Malatesta, best known as Malatesta Novello (5 August 1418 – 20 November 1465) was an Italian condottiero, a member of the Malatesta family. Biography He was born at Brescia, the son of Pandolfo III Malatesta and Antonia da Barignano ...

, commissioned a reconstruction of the church, transferring in 1457 the monks to a convent adjacent to the Chiesa dell'Osservanza in Cesena.

Augustinians Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

from the Hermitage of San Giovan Buono, which was located outside Cesena, were then brought here. From 1748 to 1777, commissioning designs by

Luigi Vanvitelli Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an eas ...

, the Augustinians replaced the earlier structure with the present church and convent. The main altarpiece originally was a ''Virgin in Glory with God the Father, and venerated by the Fathers of the Church'' by

Girolamo Genga Girolamo Genga (c. 1476 – 11 July 1551) was an Italian painter and architect of the late Renaissance, Mannerist style. Life and career Genga was born in a region near Urbino. According mainly to Giorgio Vasari's biography, by age thirtee ...

; the painting was appropriated by the Napoleonic authorities and transported to the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

. The bell tower was designed by

Pietro Carlo Borboni Pietro Carlo Borboni (Lugano 1720-Cesena 1773) was a Swiss architect, active in a late Baroque style, known for his works in Cesena, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was born in Lugano in the Ticino, and the details of his early life and train ...

. The main portal by Sebastiano Bernava.

Interior decorations

Among the internal decoration now in the church. The paintings for the 1st and 2nd altars on right are by

Aureliano Milani Aureliano Milani (1675–1749) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active in Bologna and Rome. He was a pupil of Cesare Gennari and Lorenzo Pasinelli in Bologna, although he also adhered to a style derived from the Carracci. He to ...

. The 3rd altar has an early 14th-century ''Crucifixion scene'' with polychrome wood statues of the Virgin, John the Baptist. A canvas of the ''Massacred of the Innocents'' (1640) was painted by Giovanni Battista Razzani. The canvas depicting the ''Immaculate Conception and Saints James and Erasmus of Capua'' (1670) was painted by

Cristoforo Serra Cristoforo Serra (1600–1689) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Cesena. Born in Cesena, Serra is exceptional in that painting was not his full-time vocation, yet he was prolific. He was a militia captain in the Papal troops ...

. The gilded stucco altarpiece was completed by Marcantonio Fava. It was part of a polyptych whose main wooden panel is the ''Disputation of the Immaculate conception'' now housed in Brera. The upper sections of the apse now have a copy of Genga's ''Annunciation'' (circa 1500), while the original is in the

Cesena Cathedral Cesena Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Cesena, ''Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Saint John the Baptist in the city of Cesena, Italy. It has been the episcopal seat of the present Diocese of Cesena-Sarsi ...

museum. There is also a painting by

Bartolomeo Coda Bartolomeo Coda (or Codi) flourished about the year 1543. He was called Da Rimini, as was also his elder brother Francesco, who painted in 1533. He was instructed in the art by his father, Benedetto Benedetto is a common Italian name, the equi ...

.Comune of Cesena
tourism entry on church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agostino Cesena Roman Catholic churches in Cesena 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches completed in 1777 Baroque architecture in Emilia-Romagna