Church of Saints Giuseppe e Filippo

The church of Saints Joseph and Philip Neri was built in 1781 by the Congregation of the Filippini Fathers, called to Ostra by the Confraternity of Death and Prayer, following the demolition of a pre-existing church in a state of total disrepair. From the entrance, which opens onto Via del Corso, you enter the floor of the single-nave church by climbing a staircase of about ten steps. Once at the top, what strikes you most is the spaciousness, brightness, architectural simplicity, and harmony of the interior: a true jewel of sacred art.

Inside, the church has a distinctly Baroque style, characterized by columns, tympanums, and gilded stucco work, punctuated by repeated pilasters that emphasize the corners and frame the small choir lofts and niches. The keystones feature allegorical images of the Virtues. The large rectangular apse, raised one step above the nave, has a barrel vault with lunettes and houses the high altar, surmounted by two stucco and gold angels. This, like the other two side altars, has a slender classical composition, with a pediment supported by Corinthian half-columns with decorated friezes.

The sober and elegant stucco decoration with festoons, recurring throughout the building, gives rhythm to the spaces of the vault, occupied in the center by the octagonal canvas depicting the marriage of the Virgin, by Giovanni Anastasi (1704), the same artist who painted the other two paintings depicting episodes from the life of St. Philip. The high altar is surmounted by a canvas depicting the Death of St. Joseph, by Claudio Ridolfi.

The church houses a valuable 18th-century organ by Gaetano Callido of Padua.