A plaque above the doorway names the people who paid for it: Zenobia del Carretto and Giovanni Andrea Doria I, the lords who between 1588 and 1598 wanted this church as part of the programme that was turning Loano into an imperial city. The Augustinian fathers had reached the town on 19 June 1582; the convent next door was finished in 1604 and the community stayed until 1801. The design is attributed to the architect Giovanni Ponzello, and the site was run by the master builder Bartolomeo Lanardo. In 1644 the building hosted the general congregation of the Augustinian order.
What to see
The façade is wide and very plain, and announces the three naves from outside already: a larger central doorway, two side doors framed in Verezzi stone. Inside, the church is dedicated to the Madonna delle Misericordie, while everyday use has fixed the double name of Sant'Agostino e Santa Rita, after the chapel of Saint Rita of Cascia.
Two rows of stone columns split the interior into three parts and carry what amounts to a gallery of sixteenth-century painting: canvases by Benedetto Brandimarte, Giovanni Battista Paggi and Ottavio Semino, along with monumental statues of the Evangelists. Above the main door, on the inner wall of the façade, hangs a Last Supper attributed to Pier Francesco Piola and dated to the last years of his life: the apostles sit around a rectangular table, without the stage machinery the subject usually brings with it.
Visiting
Church and convent stand in the old town, close to Palazzo Doria, now the town hall: the convent looks onto a cloister, and from there the tree-lined avenue runs down to the palace. It is not open daily; the Templari Cattolici d'Italia look after it and open it on certain occasions, on Sundays or on summer Saturday evenings, so it is worth checking before you walk up. In 2017 the convent buildings were in use by the CEIS of Genoa as accommodation for refugees.
Our editors' tip
As soon as you are inside, turn back towards the door: the Last Supper on the inner façade is what almost everyone misses, because it sits behind anyone looking at the altar. Then step out and walk the tree-lined avenue down to Palazzo Doria. Church, convent and palace come from the same family project, and walking them in sequence is the quickest way to see it.