The Basilica of Sant'Agata is located approximately half way along Via Mazzini, the pedestrian street that goes from the borough of San Rocco to the heart of the city.
Sister of two other churches dedicated to the Saint, both lost in the late Middle Ages, it was built at the beginning of the fifth Century, and its present appearance is due to the restoration that took place at the beginning of the twentieth Century which have restored the original features of early Christian style.
The façade is the result of the restoration as well and its wide and brigh smile is due to the porch installed in 1913 and taken from the former church of St. Nicholas.

The interior of the basilica is divided into three aisles, without decoration, except for a few remains found in the excavations undergone in the past century and for the crucifix hanging in the apse.
The two sets of ten columns that adorn the main nave are from different ages and very different one from each other. They break in an elegant way the austerity of the church.

At the bottom of each of the two side aisles there are altars respectively dedicated to the Patroness of the Basilica and to the Madonna of Good Counsel.
The garden, once a cemetery and adorned with a pavement built at the time of its construction, was covered by a porch of which only a few columns remain since it was demolished during the Renaissance to give way to the construction of the bell tower.

Despite its venerable age Sant'Agata Maggiore has resisted to many battles: it survived to the earthquake of 1688, that caused damages to the apse and the almost complete loss of the Renaissance frescos that adorned it, and it withstood the bombing of the Second World War, in which unfortunately the apse was totally destroyed.

I have always associated this church with an old lady with a heavy step and  plain clothes who - along with her faithful companion, the bell tower - observes the daily life of my city.
And it is precisely because it looks at me every time I pass through Via Mazzini by bike to visit my grandparents that I feel a sort of affection for this basilica which  resists for such a long time with patience to the slow passage of time.