Chiesa e Monastero di San Nicola di Celenza Valfortore

The church of San Nicola was built in 1622 together with the monastery of the same name by the spouses Andrea Gambacorta and Feliciana Spinelli, marquises of Celenza, in honor of their ancestor, Blessed Chiara Gambacorta, as the inscription on the portal recalls.

The small church, in the monastery complex, has a linear façade and houses a single baroque altar, in polychrome marble, surmounted by an altarpiece of 1759 depicting the Coronation of the Virgin with the Patron Saints, the work of the artist Michele Scaroina, as well as a beautiful golden wood pulpit. The imposing monastery housed for three centuries the Nuns of the Second Rule of Santa Chiara and still preserves the cloister and numerous frescoes; today it is home to the city schools and the archaeological museum. Of great interest are also the environments that housed the mills, while the catacombs are not open to visitors. The building, which in bulk resembles a fortress, was for decades the stage of sinister episodes that saw the protagonists of the Poor Clares and that surround the same still today a halo of mystery.