Sant'Agostino, Prato, Renaissance church in Prato, Italy
Sant'Agostino is a church in Prato with a basilical facade of cobblestones edged with brick and stone, and a robust pyramid-crowned bell tower at the rear. Its interior has three naves on brick columns with water-leaf capitals (c. 1410) and full-centre arches. The cloister of the 16th century leads to the Oratory of San Michele.
The church was founded by Augustinian monks in 1271, and the current structure was completed around 1440. Major alterations followed in the 16th century when new altars were added to the interior.
The 14th-century frescoes recovered from the convent include a cycle of Saints and Prophets painted in the late 1300s in the Oratory of San Michele, the seat of the Compagnia dei Disciplinati reached through the 16th-century cloister. The adjoining Chapter house also keeps a 14th-century structure. In the church, the presbytery was rearranged by sculptor Jorio Vivarelli in 1984.
The church stands on Piazza Sant'Agostino, and the 16th-century cloister is reached from inside the complex; the Oratory of San Michele opens off that cloister. The presbytery was rearranged by Jorio Vivarelli in 1984. The apse was hit by a bomb in World War II, destroying the wooden furnishings.
In the inner cloister stands a marble copy of Giulio Monteverde's Angel of the Resurrection, the sculpture he made for Genoa's Staglieno cemetery; it is one of the few cases where the figure has been isolated and displayed on its own.
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