Convento hotel monastery tuscany pistoia near florence restaurant swimming pool Convento hotel monastery tuscany pistoia near florence restaurant swimming pool
The Convento is a former monastery construct in the early 19th century by Padre
Andrea da Quarrata, a Franciscan sought to oppose the oppression
of religious orders in that period by
building a monastery.
It was intended to help young people with their studies of various
subjects, including religion.
The monastery was constructed on land donated by Archdeacon
Niccolò Sossifanti, a noble and illustrious personage of the city of Pistoia,
numerous offerings from the local population.
he original complex consisted of two floors, an internal courtyard and a
small cloister overlooked by the small monk's cells that were later transformed
into the rooms of the hotel.
The structure is very simple, as befitted a Franciscan monastery, formed from a variety
of rooms and long corridors that follow the entire perimeter. A large church was built alongside the monastery with a single central nave, apse and six side chapels furnished with altars and large paintings on canvas by Foschi, dated 1875. The paintings portray Sant'Atto with the Bishop of Pistoia, the Martyrdom of Monks in China and the Assumption of the Saints.
In the early 20th century, a small chapel was constructed on the right side of the church dedicated to Fra Giuseppe Giraldi (called Fra Giuseppino), a small, humble friar who lived in the convent and who was sent to beg alms in the plain and surrounding towns, bringing a message of peace and faith to the population.
The entire monastery is surrounded by walls with small tabernacles, once enhanced with impruneta terracottas by Favi that were lost over the years, and that now contain the stations of the cross interpreted by the Romanian artist, Mihu Vulcanescu, a ceramist and surrealist painter.
Over the years, the monastery was abandoned by the friars due to a lack of religious vocations that forced them to dispose of it and, thus, after much wavering on the part of the civil and religious authorities, in 1969 it was sold to the Petrini family which transformed it into a restaurant and later the hotel.