Basilica of Saint Augustine

Place not to be missed in your visit to Rieti. It is located in the center of Rieti about 100 meters from the train station. From there you can continue the visit of the most beautiful places of Rieti, such as the Vescovado, underground Rieti, the Roman bridge with the Velino river. Various places to stop for lunch or dinner in the immediate vicinity. Wide availability of parking lots.

1252 was a crucial year, to be marked albo lapillo, for the history of the universal Church and for that of the city of Rieti, at the time counted among the permanent seats of the Pontifical Curia not already for the amenity of the climate or to escape the troubles of the city ​​of Rome troubled by the struggle between the opposing factions, but for the strategic importance played on the margins of the borders with the Kingdom of Naples. Just in that year, while the civic magistrates decreed the enlargement, that is the urban expansion of the city destined to develop in the flat area north of the travertine spur on which the Sabino-Roman crime had stood for two millennia and in the early Middle Ages, the Magna Unio took place, the unification of the multiple spiritual experiences of the Eremitani giving life to the cenobitic order of the Augustinians. Thus it was that the Augustinian religious came down from the hermitage of the Annunizata and established their urban headquarters intra moenia, in the area circumscribed by the new circle of walls next to Piazza del Leone which for more than two centuries would have been the home of the civic administration buildings. The church annexed to the convent complex of Sant'Agostino is a fine example of the Romanesque-Gothic sacred architecture that emerged during the thirteenth century, with its sober façade with slightly crowned horizontal crowning, the elegant stone portal, the bulk of the apse with imposing volumes. The interior with a basilica hall was lenticularly frescoed according to the catechetical intent of the Biblia pauperum, so that even the uncultivated could avail themselves of the help of the visual narration of Sacred History, an infallible counterpoint to aid preaching, a primary commitment of the Mendicant Orders. The Augustinian Fathers exercised for centuries, until the post-unification suppression, their function aimed at the moralization and indoctrination of the faithful, in this part of the city in which the dominant classes of Piazza del Leone and the subaltern classes that crowded the district of Conca door. Precisely to them was offered, during the sixteenth century, the opportunity to meet in brotherhood under the title of the Madonna of the waist. Even for the Augustinians, in fact, the image of the Madonna had settled, intended to legitimize the nascent Order through the recognition offered to the male and female branches, identifiable among the multiple experiences of religious life through the peculiarities of the dress. Hence the image of the Madonna in majesty affirming itself in the Augustinian iconography, which gives the waist to the founder of the Order, the philosopher and theologian Agostino di Tagaste bishop of Hippo, to his mother Monica, who had played such a large part in the conversion of his son. The majestic processional statue of the Madonna of the girdle, seated on the processional machine carried out by the Rieti cabinetmaker Salvatore Porrina is still located in the Augustinian basilica, as well as on one of the altars in cornu Epistulae aligned in the eighteenth-century rearrangement within a theory of supporting columns the low-arched arches show off the canvas created by the Pesaro painter Giovan Giacomo Pandolfi, active in Rieti at the end of the sixteenth century. Professor Ileana Tozzi

Beautiful Basilica one step away from the train station ... go and see it ...

Interesting building, inside several ancient frescoes discovered under the modifications of the Baroque era.

Beautiful basilica with interesting details.

The minor basilica, in the center of the city, welcomes once again the statue of Saint Anthony of Padua this year, the celebrations started from 13 June and will last until 28 June. it will be made to go around the city since due to Covid, the solemn procession will not take place but already from the 14th a relic of the saint is being carried to different parishes of the city.

Gorgeous basilica. It is not the classic Baroque church full of decorations or pomp, but it has a charm of its own. In particular it is enriched by a lot of frescoes kept to this day. The place is easily accessible by taking a walk around Rieti, which I strongly recommend you do. The facade is quite simple, but don't be fooled by the exterior, it is very beautiful inside.