The church of Santo Stefano degli Agostiniani is in the historic centre of Empoli. The Augustinian friars moved inside the walls in 1367 and at once began building the church, set parallel to today's via de' Neri: this is why it has no façade opening onto a square. It was probably finished in 1432, the year of the death of the prior Michele da Firenze, who had worked hard for its construction and is remembered inside by a floor tomb. With the suppression of 1808 the friars left and the convent became a school.
What to see
From outside the church is one long flank with traces of the old Gothic windows; the late fourteenth-century doorway, at the end of via Santo Stefano, leads straight into the left transept. The interior is divided into three aisles by massive piers with tall Gothic arches, with five chapels on the right, four on the left and three apse chapels; two large oratories, connected to the church, were the seats of the confraternities of the Cross and of the Santissima Annunziata.
In the first chapel on the right Masolino painted the Stories of the True Cross, for which he was paid in 1424: fragments survive on the lower walls, with perspective loggias and a painted niche with flasks and books, together with the sinopie, which make it possible to read part of the cycle. In the right transept one can still see Masolino's lunette with the Madonna and Child among angels, above the sacristy door, and the fresco known as Saint Ivo and the wards. The chapel of the Magdalene keeps scenes from the saint's life by Stefano d'Antonio, a collaborator of Bicci di Lorenzo.
Visiting
In 1944 the retreating Germans blew up the seventeenth-century bell tower, 46 metres high, which fell onto the church and the old Teatro Salvini, destroying most of Masolino's frescoes; the tower was never rebuilt. Today the church is again used for worship, while the convent spaces, owned by the town, host exhibitions and services of the library next door. The visit is linked to that of the Collegiata museum; opening times should be checked.
Our editors' tip
For the altar of the oratory of the Confraternity of the Cross, Cigoli painted a Deposition that is now in Palazzo Pitti in Florence: the church keeps a copy by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, made in the time of Grand Duke Ferdinando II.
