Museum Building and Church of Saint Augustine (Palazzo dei Musei e Chiesa di Sant’Agostino)

The Church of Sant’Agostino, of medieval origins but featuring a dramatic Baroque interior, was conceived as the Pantheon Atestinum, a place where the funerals of the Dukes of Modena were held and the glory of the House of Este was celebrated.

Built by Augustinian friars between the 14th and 15th centuries, its late medieval structure is still recognisable on the right-hand side. Upon the death of Francesco I (1659), it was chosen to host his funeral. Four years later, upon the death of Alfonso IV, the widowed duchess Laura Martinozzi financed new funerary decorations, designed by Gian Giacomo Monti, with the aim of making the church a place of celebration of the family’s virtues.

The church features a simple brick façade with a curvilinear tympanum. The interior, of rare dramatic effect, contains the sumptuous decorations created in 1662-63: the sculptures and paintings celebrate the heroic virtues of saints linked genealogically to the House of Este. The stuccoes are mostly the work of the sculptors Gian Battista Barberini and Lattanzio Maschio. The original altarpieces are no longer in place. Among the works of art that replaced them is the Lamentation (1524-26) by Antonio Begarelli.

The adjacent convent was transformed into the Grande Albergo dei Poveri between 1764 and 1771 at the behest of Francesco III d’Este. In 1788, his successor Ercole III decided to establish an art school for textile-making in the building. After the Unification of Italy, it became the seat of the Este collections, transferred from the Ducal Palace. Purchased by the Municipality of Modena in 1881, it became home to the Estense Gallery, the Estense University Library, the Estense Lapidary Museum, the Poletti Art Library, the Municipal Archive and the Civic Museum.