Car RentalsThe Mother Church
Sant' Agostino
Chiesa Sant’ Agostino, Rome
Rome is a city bristling with churches that are loaded with precious artwork and architectural beauty, many of which are tourist attractions in their own right, where pilgrims from the world over line up to gaze upon a particular painting or see a specific sculpture. So it is a surprise that just steps from Piazza Navona, one of Rome’s most famous spots, is a relatively unknown and overlooked church, despite some heavy-hitting, headliner artwork within.
Sant’Agostino, built in 1420, and was one of the first Renaissance-era churches constructed in Rome and its facade mimics the famed Santa Maria Novella in Firenze. The travertine is said to have been scavenged from the Colosseum.
Caravaggio painting
The interior was gaudily redecorated in the 1700s, but even the excesses cannot hide the treasures. The first chapel on the left contains a controversial Caravaggio, the Madonna dei Pellegrini (also sometimes called the Madonna del Loreto). Only a thin halo marks Mary as a saint, who is depicted as an everyday woman with bare feet holding a chubby child while adoring pilgrims with their dirty feet and tattered clothes kneel before her. The stark realism caused a commotion among priests and parishioners alike.
Up the aisle a bit you’ll find an unassuming fresco of the prophet Isaiah by none other than Raffaelo. The two light-hearted angels flying high above the altar are by the Baroque master, Bernini.
the Madonna del Parto
While many travelers overlook this church and its masterpieces, many Italian women flock here- not for the above-mentioned works but for the sculpture to the right of the entrance, the Madonna del Parto (Madonna of Childbirth). Said to be the bringer of babies, this statue is beseeched upon by wanna-be mammas and expectant mothers from all over Italy. Twinkling candles, kneeling women with heads bowed, and prayer cards are common. The collage of photos and embroidered birth announcements proclaim the blessings bestowed upon the faithful followers. No wonder some call this the “mother’s church”.
