SPIRITUALITY AT THE CINQUE TERRE PARK - TRIP CODE: CAPPUCCEN
MONTEROSSO:
Franciscan experience in the Capuchin Convent
The Convent of the Capuchin Friars Minor of Monterosso al Mare was founded between 1618 and 1619; it is included in a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the most interesting architectural and historical-artistic complexes of the Cinque Terre.
It attracts a large number of visitors every year. The building contains important works of art, it is a place of particular worship and devotion by the local population.
The Capuchin Convent of Monterosso
Considering its highly suggestive position that dominates from the Colle di San Cristoforo (place of settlement of the ancient Castle from which the village originates), the Convent can be seen from all the Cinque Terre and is a strong element of attraction for the tourists also considered the high historical and artistic value of the art treasures it contains: remember the seventeenth-century church in Capuchin style with wooden altar and choir, its works of art (including the "Crucifixion" traditionally attributed to Flemish painter Antoon Van Dyck and the "San Girolamo penitente" by Luca Cambiaso), the refectory sometimes with "La Veronica" attributed to Bernardo Strozzi, the convent that has maintained all the characteristics of the past to which is added the sublime panorama that from it one can contemplate.
The Convent is mentioned in all the Italian and international historical-artistic guides of the area and together with the Cinque Terre it is part of the Unesco heritage.
It was started in 1618-19, while the Church was consecrated a few years later.
It was built thanks to the action and funding of the noble and poorly studied Squarciafico family of Genoa who also had possessions in Spain and whose creator later became Father Francesco and embarked on a career within the Order.
The building consisted of 12 cells plus community rooms, with gardens on several levels, a church and churchyard. The Capuchin friars have always closely followed the fate of the village and have been of irreplaceable both spiritual and concrete help. In the nineteenth century despite the population rising, the convent was closed as a result of the Napoleonic laws: the stop took place in January 1810 when in the convent there were also numerous friars from Monterosso, some of them took up residence in the village and were thus able to continue to guard the church. In 1816 a part of the convent was returned to the friars. But the cloistered peace lasted only fifty years: in 1867 the complex was closed again due to the Savoy laws, to avoid dismemberment the gardens were bought by Pietro Benvenuto di Monterosso and the convent was taken over by the reverend Giuseppe Policardi of Monterosso who lived there, with the intention of making the friars return there.
The convent was reopened in 1895 by the same congregation that had founded it, continuing a long path of devotion and closeness to local populations. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the Congregation closed the convent due to a lack of religious and later gave the structure to management.
Since 2006 the Convent has returned to the Province of the Capuchin Friars Minor of Genoa with a spiritual project of welcome and cultural and social enhancement. First place of the heart in Italy - FAI 2014 Census In 2014, the Convent of Monterosso participated at the "Places of the heart" campaign of the Fondo Ambiente Italiano, ranking first at the national level with over 110.000 reports, a number never reached up to now and made up of Italians and people from all over the world. The primacy made it possible to obtain a contribution for the renovation works following the flood that affected the Cinque Terre in 2011 and in particular brought a lot of attention from the media point of view through articles, TV programs, radio and the involvement of personalities famous.
Guided tour of the convent
The route includes the main rooms of the convent: the warmer, the cloister, the refectory, the holy staircase, the terraces from which you can admire both the vegetable garden and the garden of the convent and the panorama of the Cinque Terre. Also the choir and the church can be visited.
