Convent of Fra Cristoforo

Fra Cristoforo is a very important figure of The Betrothed. He was a Capuchin and his convent is regularly located in the district of Pescarenico by Alessandro Manzoni.

The church was built in 1576 on the behalf of the Spanish governor Hurtado de Mendoza and housed the Capuchin until 1810, when Napoleon decided the order’s suppression.

Nowadays ancient monastery’s traces remain in the yard and portico where the monks’ cells overlook. Over the years the church underwent revivals, such as the neo-classical façade, project of the local Giuseppe Bovara and the triangular bell tower is the eighteenth century.

Dedicated to Saints Lucia and Materno, the church has a single rectangular nave with a fine sixteenth-century wooden altar.

The church hosts a singular artwork made up of nine glass boxes, containing polychrome wax compositions, referring to the Neapolitan culture of the late seventeenth century, representing scenes from the life of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.

To enrich the interior a spectacular altarpiece of the seventeenth century, painted by Giovan Battista Crespi known as Cerano, depicting Francis and Gregory the Great adoring the Trinity. The monastery and the adjoining church are located on the main road connecting Lecco to Bergamo.

Illustration darft for the edition of The Betrothed dated 1840 Library Braidense
Cover image: © eccoLecco

Chapter IV

The sun had not yet risen above the horizon, when Father Christopher left the convent of Pescarenico, to go to the cottage where he was so anxiously expected. (…) The convent was situated (the building still subsists) at a short distance from them, half way between Lecco and Bergamo.

Articolo aggiornato il 8 June 2022 da eccoLecco