The Church of Saint Augustine
The Augustinian cult has been around for centuries
In the square of the same name, a few metres from the central Garibaldi Square, stands the church of Saint Augustine. The building owes its name to the pre-existing convent of Augustinian fathers present on the site until the 1908 earthquake.
The architectural structure
The church is spread over three naves, according to the simplicity of the Romanesque-Byzantine style. In comparison with the other city churches, however, it has an unusual structure, with its five characteristic domes of different sizes on the sides, corresponding to the apse, the aisles, and the bell tower.
DID YOU KNOW THAT …?
The church is registered in the diocese as a parish of SS. Filippo and Giacomo since 1783, the year when a terrible earthquake that destroyed the existing building, forcing it to unite with the nascent Saint Augustine: two names, one church.
The Madonna of the Cintura
Of great artistic interest is the painting place on the left aisle of the church, depicting the Madonna della Cintura, an 18th century work by the painted Sebastiano Conca. The very figure of the Madonna binds this church to the presence in the past of the Augustian order: the Marian cult spread by the philosopher bishop of Hipponia is linked to the “cintura of the Madonna” (the “belt of the Madonna”) that appears in a dream to Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine. He chooses the leather belt as a distinctive sign of the religious order he founded.
