Augustinian Convent in Forza D'Agrò
The Convent of Sant'Agostino in Forza D'Agrò is striking for the grandeur of its proportions.
It is located in the eastern part of the town, next to the church of the Santissima Trinità and overlooks Piazza delle Triade.< br>It was built around 1591, the year of the foundation of the Confraternity of the same name: it is believed that the number 1559 engraved in the arched entrance door in dolomite stone means the beginning of the works on the monastery. After the unification of Italy, the convent became state property and forced the Augustinian friars to leave those walls. The convent was thus temporarily entrusted to the municipality, which erected it as the seat of the Municipal Administration. When the new Municipal Palace was built in 1982, the building was abandoned until the year 2000 when the restoration work began.
The large façade of the monastery is interrupted by two windows and three large windows on the first floor and by two windows and a large arched door on the ground floor which leads into the religious building. After passing the entrance arch, on the right there is a room called Santu Nicola, now used as a museum room. In the basement of the convent, which is accessed via a trapdoor placed on the floor of the San Nicola room and a rapid staircase, there is a crypt where, all around an altar, there are walls, 15 brick armchairs each having a hole right in the middle of the seat. Almost in contrast with the function of the place, the various and lively colors stand out, with a prevalence of red, gray and orange. In these places the monks performed their funeral rites, burying their brothers sitting down. Also inside the hall of San Nicola, a mass grave was found where, it is presumed, the friars of lesser importance were buried.
Leaving the crypt and the hall of San Nicola, you enter the Cloister of the Convent , made with large square-section pillars. The doors of some rooms of the Convent open around it. To the left of the cloister a small door leads into the Church of the Triad.
