The Basilica of Sant'Aurea is the cathedral of the suburbicarian diocese of Ostia and is situated in the area known today as Ostia Antica in the piazza of the medieval borgo near the Castle of Julius II and the archaeological site. Commissioned in the second half of the 1400s by the French Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville, famous as the archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome from 1453 to 1483, it was later completed by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II. Designed by the Florentine Baccio Pontelli, the church was named for the martyr who, according to legend, was buried in the small church that previously existed on the site. St. Monica was also buried here, though her remains were moved to the Church celebrating her son Sant’Agostino in Campo Marzio, Rome, in the 15th century. The Episcopio conserves renowned monochrome frescoes freely inspired by the reliefs on Trajan’s Column and attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi and Jacopo Ripanda, commissioned by Cardinal Raffaele Riario in 1511 and rediscovered only in 1977.
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