Church of San Francesco di Paola

The story

The convent of San Francesco di Paola was founded on 10 February 1510, three years after the death of the founder of the Minims, and is remembered as the first convent of the order built after he died. It came into being under the provincial Bernardino da Cropalati, the saint's companion and confessor. A handwritten chronicle says the land was given by the noble de Matera family. Local tradition also remembers a stay by Francis himself in a cave behind the building, but what is documented is the 1510 foundation.

The building site did not end with the first stone. The cloister was completed in 1566; by 1720 the dormitory had been redesigned inside by the Neapolitan master Giovanni Calieri; after the 1854 earthquake the top of the bell tower fell and the friars began rebuilding it in 1855. The church is a parish church today, while the former convent, once also a barracks, has housed the State Archive since 2008. It stands on the north bank of the Crati, where the old town opens toward the new one.

What to look for

On the front, look for the Gothic-style portal; inside, the single nave holds a 1551 painting by Pietro Negroni and a sixteenth-century triptych by Cristofaro Faffeo, along with a wooden choir dated 1679.