The
Monastero of San
Francesco
was built in 1235 by Altrude and Margherita Rebursa, noble
women of Aversa, in the burgh of Sant'Andrea outside the
wall, on the area of the Castle of Riccardo Rebursa. Among
the names of the abbesses that ran the convent those of the
magnate families of Aversa appear: Del Tufo, Mormile,
Lucarelli, Merenda.
Of
the big convent little is left since, in the Ia half of this
century, following the suppression of the convents, the big
cloister and part of the Belvedere of the Monache, were
dispossessed to give order to the actual piazza
Municipio.
The
primitive structure is present in a wing of the Romanesque
cloister, with characteristic mullioned windows with two
lights with coupled small columns, and in the Gothic one
(1306). The reconstruction of the church in 1645 that
presents marbles enchased polychrome ornaments and splendid
altars, among which the bigger one predominates, is very
interesting; the plasters, that finish the vault of the nave
and the dome, date back to the intervention of 1753.
The
church, among the most beautiful of the city, strictly
emulates the church of San Martino in Naples by Cosimo
Fansago.
The
pronaos presents a frescoed beady of baroque style, the
Estasi
of San Francesco,
Santa
Chiara
and four
small puttos
in the panaches of the vault at the beginning of the XVIII
century and a precious ligneous
door
('600), with the panels of San
Francesco
and Santa
Chiara.
Inside, in the Ia right chapel the gaudy marble decoration
frames, on the altar, the cloth of the
Assunzione
of Maria,
of the seventeenth century and the frescos, the Morte and
the Morte
and the Assunzione
della Vergine;
in the following, a beautiful Annunciazione
of '600, with the Sogno
di Giuseppe
and the Visitazione;
in the third, the Immacolata
Concezione,
by Lorenzo Ruggi (1671), a scholar of Luca Giordano, and
frescos of the Natività
della Vergine
and of the Presentazione
al Tempio.
In the transept two big paintings of Francesco De Mura,
Santa
Chiara puts the Saraceni
and the Pentecoste
in escape, both of 1764; the
fine
high altar
(XVII sec.), of polychrome marbles and the interesting
ciborium
of gilded wood, decorate the cloth of
San
Francesco in glory,
by «Jusepe de Ribera Valentianus / Acc.us Rom.us / F.
1642»; other frescos
of the apse reproduce episodes
of the life of Santa Chiara
and, in the middle, a Gloria
of Sant'Antonio
by Giustino Lombardo from the school of Solimene. On the
left side, in the third chapel, an
organ
of gilded wood of the eighteenth century; in the following,
on each side the Episodi
della vita di Gesù
and, on the altar, the very fine
Adorazione
of the pastors
of «PETRUS BERRETTINUS / CORTONENSIS» (around
1650); in the Ia chapel, frescos
with Storie of Cristo
and, on the altar, a precious deposed
Christ
by Paolo De Majo (half '700).
In
the Sacristy,
among the ligneous closets, the interesting cloth with
Santa
Chiara in glory
by Leonardo Olivieri and two ligneous
Crocifissi
of '700 are arched.
In
the Romanesque
cloister,
there are frescos of medieval period: in the first bay, a
Madonna
col Bambino and Santi
(XIII century), in that following,
Santa
Chiara and other religious
(XIV sec.), the faces of two Profeti
of cavallinian school are fine. In the following wing of the
cloister we can enter the subterranean
Cemetery
in which the "drainers", are still observable where the
corpses of the nuns were deposed.
In
the inferior choir, placed at the extremity of the wing, a
precious table of theMadonna
Lactans,
according to the style of Guido da Siena, is kept.
On
the landing of the first floor there are other frescos:
Madonna
con Bambino and Santi, San Sebastiano, Sant'Antonio Abate
and San Rocco
(XV century). In the superior choir, in the middle of the
ceiling, a praying San
Francesco
from Flemish school, the '500. From the balcony it is
possible to see the ancient Romanesque bell tower and the
beautiful dome covered with glazed tiles.
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