Convent of the Capuchin monks – Montorio al Vomano
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Diomede Carafa, count of Montorio, built the Convent of the Capuchin monks in 1576, however it was consecrated only in 1621 and dedicated to Saint Mary's Health. The edifice is located outside the town on a small hill. It is a vast rectangular building today in ruins, with attached on the right a church and its cloister.
The façade comprises a central rose window, a small bell tower on the right and a small portal with four irregular arches.
The cloister’s ground plan is quadrangular with pillars, no roofing, and a feature well. The door on the right leads to a vegetable garden (today a football pitch) from where it is also visible a fresco of the Last Supper, sadly in ruin. On the left there is a wheel used in the past to collect abandoned newborn babies.
Keeping on this side of the building, the convent’s door leads to the first floor where the monks’ cells are. On the first landing there are an oval fresco representing Saint Francis, the Eucharistic image and eight paintings on the lateral walls.
The portal is made of chiselled stone. Above there is a fanlight representing Saint Antonio, the Madonna, Saint Rocco, Saint Francis and among the eight paintings, there is the Annunciation.
Four chapels and wooden altars adorn the interior walls. Traditionally the convent’s façade is used to stage the Nativity scene.
According to a legend, the unspoiled body of the holy friar Silvestro della Macchia is stuck between the first and the second chapel. From here, occasionally, he sends out signals of his spiritual presence leaving crevices on the wall.
On the wall right at the end of the convent there is the richly carved high altar, with a tabernacle, small empty niches – once containing statues - and a central painting representing Saint Mary's Health.