Description
The Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli is the Baroque church that Saint Lawrence of Brindisi had built in his hometown, in Piazza Angeli. Inside it keeps the saint's mementos, including the crucifix he carried into battle against the Ottomans.
The carparo stone facade is decorated with flowers and cherubs, and the wooden door bears reliefs of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare, Saint John and Saint Matthew. Behind the high altar hangs the Immaculate Conception among the Angels by Pieter de Witte.
The saint's chapel holds the ivory crucifix with which Lawrence rallied the Christian soldiers at the battle of Székesfehérvár, in 1601. Beside it are the book he prayed with and pieces of his habit; in the transept, one of his vertebrae in a reliquary.
Lawrence wanted it built on his own land for the Poor Clares, and the work, begun in 1609, was paid for largely by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. The monastery next door, in use from 1619, was demolished in the early 20th century.
The carparo stone facade is decorated with flowers and cherubs, and the wooden door bears reliefs of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare, Saint John and Saint Matthew. Behind the high altar hangs the Immaculate Conception among the Angels by Pieter de Witte.
The saint's chapel holds the ivory crucifix with which Lawrence rallied the Christian soldiers at the battle of Székesfehérvár, in 1601. Beside it are the book he prayed with and pieces of his habit; in the transept, one of his vertebrae in a reliquary.
Lawrence wanted it built on his own land for the Poor Clares, and the work, begun in 1609, was paid for largely by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. The monastery next door, in use from 1619, was demolished in the early 20th century.