Agape was founded in 1973 by the Benedini family in Verona and relocated to Mantua — the family's ancestral city — in 1979. The company today operates from its Bosco campus in Bagnolo San Vito (Via Po Barna 69, 46031) near Mantua. The founding partners included cousins Gianfranco and Luigi Benedini (entrepreneurs in the sanitary sector) and architect Giampaolo Benedini. Since the 1990s, his brother Emanuele Benedini has served as CEO, growing the export ratio to approximately 70% of total production and shaping the brand's international profile. Camilla Benedini (Giampaolo's daughter) today heads the commercial and cultural dimension. The catalogue encompasses over 550 products. In 2023, Agape marked its 50th anniversary with the exhibition "We actually wanted to do something else: an Agape tale – 1973/2023" at the Bosco campus.
Agape was the first brand to conceive the bathroom as a fully architecturally designed space — offering a complete range of bathtubs, washbasins, sanitary ware, bathroom furniture, mirrors, taps, showers and accessories. It was also the first to include products made from Cristalplant® Biobased — an ecological, restorable and recyclable solid surface — in its catalogue. All products have been mapped according to LEED® standards (in collaboration with Habitech and TÜV Italy). Design icons include the Spoon bathtub (Benedini Associati, 1998), the Pear and Foglio washbasins (Patricia Urquiola, 2003), and Vieques. Design partners include Patricia Urquiola, Jean Nouvel, Angelo Mangiarotti and Studio MK27. In 2009, Agape founded the sister brand Agapecasa to re-edit the works of Angelo Mangiarotti.
For architects and hospitality planners, Agape is relevant when the bathroom is to be conceived as an architectural space with sculptural ambition, the highest material quality and a consistently sustainable product philosophy — backed by over 50 years of documented design history.