Ruins of the Church and Monastery of Santa Chiara (1604)
The Basilica of Santa Chiara in Assisi is certainly the most important of the basilicas dedicated to the veneration of the young Franciscan friar. His remains are kept here. If we go to Sardinia, we find the only cathedral dedicated to the saint in the town of Iglesias. But a trace of St. Clare, of her history, of her following of Poor Francis, of her cloistered order, has also remained in Calabria, and it is a history that dates back to the 16th century: it has to do with the benevolence of pious benefactors. We are in Squillace, more precisely on Via Santa Chiara, where, among the green bushes of the area, stand the enchanted ruins of a monastery and its small church. It's not a small complex, but a magnificent piece of architecture, as its remains suggest.
Entering the ruined walls, it is easy to reconstruct the layout of this ancient building: the nave was a single-span structure, with three chapels on either side, a presbytery, and the central women's gallery, which opened onto the entrance portal surmounted by an arch.

The façade is still framed by an architraved tympanum, and the main portal is surmounted by a niche that may have housed the statue of Saint Chiara. The Baroque style is evident in the decorated shelves in the lower part of the portal. 16th century and then Baroque: A number of written testimonies date the completion of the building to 1604-1609, three years after the death of the benefactor who would have made its construction possible. It would be a certain Marcello Minniti from Guardavalle, about whom Father Fiore writes in his Calabria Illustrata: "to bring lasting benefit to the family; if sixteen nuns of his relatives had to support themselves from it." The construction could have been even earlier, around 1300, considering that around 1600 this place was described as a "new monastery," in contrast to an existing monastery that had always been dedicated to Santa Chiara and was the first in the area.

Text / Source: Meraviglie di Calabria.it
meravigliedicalabria.it/a-squillace-nellaltra-umbria-di-santa-chiara

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Elevation 320 m

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Location: Squillace, Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy

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Ruins of the Church and Monastery of Saint Clare (1604)

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