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Oratory of San Desiderio, Pistoia

16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in ItalyItalian church stubsRenaissance architecture in TuscanyRoman Catholic churches in Pistoia
Affresco Vini
Affresco Vini

The Oratory of San Desiderio is a prayer hall located on Via Laudesi #53 in Pistoia, region of Tuscany, Italy. It houses 16th century paintings by Sebastiano Vini, Domenico Cresti (also called il Passignano), Francesco Curradi, and Matteo Rosselli. The oratory is diagonally across from the apse of Santa Maria Nuova. The church was attached to a hospital, later converted into a Benedictine convent of nuns, putatively of the Mantellate order. In 1516, it became property of the Franciscan order until suppressed in 1786. Purchased by the Amati family, whose ancestor had patronized the decoration of the oratory. This family arranged in 1844 to have church reconsecrated. The oratory's counterfacade contains a massive fresco by Vini depicting the Crucifixion of St Desiderio. The colorful scene is crowded and varied, and the superior panoramic has a gallery of tortuous crucifixions. In the oratory's coffered ceiling were eleven canvas by Cresti, Curradi, and Rosselli.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Oratory of San Desiderio, Pistoia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Oratory of San Desiderio, Pistoia
Via Laudesi, Pistoia

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Latitude Longitude
N 43.931005 ° E 10.921489 °
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Ex Oratorio di San Desiderio

Via Laudesi
51100 Pistoia
Tuscany, Italy
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Affresco Vini
Affresco Vini
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Nearby Places

Santa Barbara Fortress, Pistoia
Santa Barbara Fortress, Pistoia

The Fortress of Santa Barbara (Fortezza di Santa Barbara) is a 14th-century urban castle erected to house troops guarding the town of Pistoia, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. While it is suggested that initially the fortress was named after a nearby church of Saint Barnabas, however, Saint Barbara is the patron saint of artillerymen. The initial fortress was erected in 1331, after the Florentine Republic had defeated the forces of Castruccio Castracani, and reconsolidated their power over Pistoia. In 1531, under the designs of Nanni Unghero, the fortress was enlarged, but subsequently during the rule of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici the fortress was further enhanced, initially by Giovanni Battista Belluci, and subsequently by construction of a perimeter wall under the design of Bernardo Buontalenti. Similar fortress buildings by the Medici ruler took place throughout Tuscany, including the similarly named Fortezza di Santa Barbara in Siena in 1561–63. Unghero's fortress had been a simple moated quadrilateral, but Buontalenti linked the structure to the city wall. The fortress was only besieged in 1643, when the armies of the Pope Urban VIII Barberini unsuccessfully attacked the city. In the late 18th-century, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo I, relieved the fortress of its role in the city defences, changing the main functions to work as barracks. In subsequent decades it also served as a jail. In 1970, much-needed restoration work was begun. The fortress chapel has some Baroque era frescoes. Presently surrounding land serves as parkland and the ramparts have views of town and surrounding territory.