Convento della Santissima Annunziata
relevance for the project
It is relevant for environmental issues, it needs restoration works.
overview
The convent is located at the foot of Monte Serra Santa (Monte Santo), so called because of the many hermits who live there: s. Facondino, s. Romualdo, s. Francesco, the blessed Marzio, Angelo and Tomasuccio.
The friars, since 1238, had a hermitage in the area of Gualdo.
In the second half of the 15th century, where the convent is currently located, there were five hermitages inhabited by anchorites of the Third Regular Order who referred to the convent of S. Francesco dei Conventuali. In 1479 the municipality offered to those anchorites the land for the construction of a convent, named after SS. ma Maria Annunziata. On 26 August 1516, Pope Leo X asked the Observants to move to the convent of the Annunciation.
In 1529 the friars enlarged the garden, and the following year they made some restorations in the convent. In 1700 the church and the convent were extensively transformed. In the first decade of 1900, things went well: the friars repaired the roofs, the chapel of St. Pasquale, brought water to the convent, and hosted some emigrants from the province of Viterbo. From 1917 to 1919, by order of the municipality, the convent housed prisoners of war: on their departure, the building was in such a pitiful state that it needed a deep restoration, which was started in 1923.
The church is of Baroque style, has a choir of 1600, seven altars and two chapels, with many paintings posted a bit everywhere; above the high altar of 1629, shows a large picture of the Annunciation.
The convent has a cloister - in the centre of which there is a cistern of 1883 - the kitchen, the pantry, the cellar and four other rooms for various services. On the upper floor, there are twenty rooms, two living rooms, a library and a refectory. There is also a vegetable garden and a wood with a cloister.
From 1963 to 1988, the superior was Fr. Teofilo Fraticelli, who renovated the convent and its access and cleaned the wood. He died in a car accident on 25 May 1988.
bibliography
Canonici L. (1991). I Francescani nell'Umbria. I - Storia della Provincia Serafica (1208-1991). Assisi: Tipolitografia Porziuncola
Di Giampaolo F. (2013). Pietre che parlano. Conventi chiusi e Conventi aperti della Provincia Serafica di San Francesco. Assisi: Provincia Serafica di San Francesco dei Frati minori dell’Umbria
Treccia F. (1996). Memoriale sul Convento della S.S. Annunziata in Gualdo Tadino. Assisi: Porziuncola
localisation
Gualdo Tadino (PG), Umbria, Italy
12.793786, 43.231185