Monastery of the Poor Clares

Overlooking Piazza Roma in Cerreto Sannita, the former monastery of the Poor Clares was founded in 1369 by Francesca Sanframondi, lady-in-waiting to Queen Joanna I. The 1688 earthquake killed some forty nuns; the survivors moved into the new building in 1696. Suppressed in 1861, the complex is now a school.The monastery has a square plan, a large cloister and a garden at the back, although most of the rooms were transformed in the 20th century. We like the Baroque Church of Santa Maria Mater Christi, a single hall, with its portico paved in 18th-century Cerreto ceramic and polychrome marble altars from 1738. In the atrium is the funerary monument of the first abbess, Caterina Sanframondi.