The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Provenzano

Wood and Textile Furnishings

Behind the high altar, the beautiful choir stalls and two very fine side organs, the work of two Sienese artists, complete the church’s wooden furnishings, designed by the architect Agostino Fantastici (1782-1845) in the neoclassical style.
His way of conceiving space led him to draw up the plans for the pews, confessionals, and kneeling benches. Considered one of the leading exponents of the artistic taste of his time, Fantastici prepared for the church an interior design in line with the fashion of the period, in which he succeeded in expressing his personal idea of ornamental taste. The furniture is distinguished by plain lines in which the sense of volume and chromatic effects are provided by the differing shades of the walnut and cypress wood and their various degrees of seasoning.
Other objects in the church, important as historical documents, are a large velvet hanging with the papal insignia, easily visible above the high altar, offered to Our Lady on 8 June 1658 by the Chigi Pope Alexander VII, and next to it a Turkish flag given to the Madonna of Provenzano in 1686.