Sant’Agostino, in piazza Amendola, is a Gothic church in Como of the Cistercian type: founded in the 14th century by the Hermits of Saint Augustine on the city’s old harbour, it has three naves with pointed arches, presbytery frescoes and the remains of the monastery’s two cloisters.
History
The church overlooks the old harbour of Sant’Agostino, in the Coloniola district, at the foot of Mount Brunate. It was founded by Hermit friars from the convent of San Tommaso at Civiglio, a village above Como, on land given by the Pioppi family: Pietro Pioppi was buried there in 1393. The founding date varies: the Lombardia Beni Culturali record puts it at 1300 according to 17th-18th-century local scholarship, Wikipedia in the first half of the 14th century. For the consecration too the sources differ: perhaps 1384, by Bishop Enrico da Sessa, for the regional record; between 1379 and 1384 for Wikipedia. The convent carried weight in Como above all after 1449, when it joined the Observance of the Lombard Congregation.
In the 17th century five chapels with stuccoes, frescoes and wooden altars were added. With the monastery’s suppression, in 1772, the church became a parish church and the year after, with the demolition of nearby Sant’Antonino, took over its functions and rights: the Neoclassical alterations that followed hid the Gothic structure. A restoration in the 1960s removed them, gave the naves back their wooden trusses, moved the altar under the chancel arch and brought to light frescoes on the arch and the pillars. In 1995 the stone facade was plastered in a single colour, sparing the pilasters, the window frames and the oculi, which have polychrome bands.
What to see
Exterior and cloisters
The stepped facade is divided in three by polychrome pilasters and crowned by pinnacles, with a large rose window above the 15th-century stone portal, carved with floral motifs. In the lunette are the remains of a fresco of the second half of the 15th century with the Madonna and Child, Saint Augustine and Saint Monica on one side, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and Blessed Maddalena Albrici on the other, which Wikipedia attributes to Andrea De Passeri. The bell tower is a simple tower set against the sacristy.
On the south side the two cloisters survive. The “new” one, reached from the street, has only its southern side, with seven bays on stone columns; after a staircase you reach the “old” cloister, of which three sides remain. On the outer wall of the church, partly covered by the vaults, fragments of late 15th-century frescoes can be read. The cloister was recently restored, according to the Gite in Lombardia portal, which does not give the year. In the old refectory is a Last Supper with twelve Augustinian monk saints, of 1620, detached from its original place in 1876 after an earthquake: critics usually give it to Giovanni Paolo Recchi, but Wikipedia notes that the attribution is not certain.
Interior
Stone pillars carry the pointed arches of the three naves, which end in three flat apses. In the presbytery the most important evidence of the 14th-century painted cycle has been preserved: a Crucifixion in the choir, an Annunciation with the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah on the chancel arch and other prophets in niches. The left aisle has six chapels of Renaissance and Baroque taste, in sharp contrast with the sobriety of the rest.
The second, of the Madonna della Cintura, has frescoes and canvases by Morazzone of 1612, among them the Birth of Mary and the Wedding at Cana. According to Wikipedia the third has frescoes by Pietro Bianchi and a Deposition by Francesco Innocenzo Torriani, and the fifth a Dream of Saint Joseph attributed to Daniele Crespi; on the right wall the same source lists a Madonna with Saints by Simone Peterzano and a Madonna and Child with Saints Fermo and Lawrence by Giulio Calvi, of 1590.
Getting there
The church is at piazza Giovanni Amendola 22, a few minutes’ walk from the lakefront and Como Lago station, near the start of the funicular to Brunate (Como City).
Practical information
- A regional record updated in 2010 gave opening hours of 7.30-12 and 14.30-19: we found no recent confirmation, and it is best to phone the parish (031 300217, the number also given by the regional record).
- The parish is part of the pastoral community with San Giuliano.