Monastery of the Poor Clares, Cerreto Sannita

The former Monastery of the Poor Clares of Cerreto Sannita is an ancient place of worship founded in 1369 by Francesca Sanframondi, collateral relative and chamberlain to Queen Joanna I of Naples as well as a relative of Giovanni III Sanframondi, count of Cerreto Sannita.

Rebuilt after the June 5, 1688 earthquake, the monastery housed the order of Urbanist Poor Clares from the 14th century to the 20th century when it became the property of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Good and Perpetual Help, who established a boarding school, kindergarten, language high school, school and teacher training institute there, naming the complex after Pope Leo XIII.

The church attached to the monastery is a splendid example of Baroque architecture. Remained intact over the centuries, it preserves in the pronaos an 18th-century ceramic floor.

The minutes of the various trials that took place over the years between the bishops and the nuns, preserved in the archives of the Episcopal Curia, provide a wealth of information about the life of the Poor Clares within the monastery and their relations with the outside world.