Wikipedia (
visit link)
informs us (as translated by Google):
"The church and the adjoining monastery were built in 1679. In 1682, two Poor Clare nuns with seventeen novices entered the new monastery.
For some time the monastic community of Altamura, which reached the number of forty-two nuns in the 1960s, carried out activities such as embroidering in gold and silk or painting on sacred vestments and the packaging of sweets on commission. Among the activities that are still carried out today, there is the packaging of wafers for the churches of the city and the production of a particular liqueur based on walnuts called Nocino or Padre Peppe. The production of sweets based on almond paste and cream, on the other hand, continues today in the convent pastry shop where recipes, methods and secrets of the nuns are used."
This website- (
visit link) adds:
"The foundation of the Poor Clares monastery dates back to November 15, 1682 with the solemn entry into the new monastery of Sister Battista Costantini and Brigida Viti from the monastery of S. Maria del Soccorso already established in the city of Altamura, seventeen novices and two lay sisters.
The facade of the church is divided into two registers by a stringcourse cornice, which supports, in movement, the recesses and protrusions of the four pilasters resting on a rusticated base placed on the sides of the central portal. On the architrave of the latter, decorated with triglyphs and rosettes, a niche is inserted between two volutes which houses the statue of the Immaculate, while two other niches, open to the sides of the portal, decorated with elegant frames and a shell-shaped basin, welcome the statue of S. Chiara on the right, and S. Francesco, on the left.
In continuity with the facade of the church stands the bell tower divided horizontally into four parts by molded frames and concluded with a bulbous termination. The ornamental refinement is entrusted to the alternation of rustic ashlar, smooth pilasters, now marked by horizontal ashlars, with large openings delimited by balustrades.
In 1722, following the collapse of the bell tower, part of the façade was also damaged and was promptly rebuilt. On Via Santa Chiara there is a second access to the church which has a single nave with a flat-topped presbytery. The jealousies for the nuns and large arches that frame the altars open along the side walls. Of notable interest is the rich wooden decoration, with a predominance of plant motifs, which covers the soffits of the arches and completes the picture frames."
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