Monastero di Santa Caterina

Santa Caterina Vecchia

The original Benedictine nunnery of Santa Caterina was established in the 13th century on a site about 1 km outside Porta Sant’ Angelo, and Pope Clement IV consecrated its church in 1265.  In 1382, the nuns were given responsibility for those at Santa Maria Maddalena (see Walk IV).

Pope Innocent VIII removed the nunnery from the Bishop's supervision in 1487, at the request of the nuns, and placed it under the protection of the Cassinese monks of San Pietro.  Pope Julius II confirmed its privileges in 1507.  The association with Santa Maria Maddalena, which had continued intermittently since 1382, was broken at this point.

The the community was open to attack during the siege by Tuscan soldiers in the War of Castro (1643), and the nuns moved to a new site within the city wall.  They found hospitality at San Francesco delle Donne and then at Santa Maria Maddalena, before moving to what became known as Santa Caterina Nuova in 1649.  Their association with San Pietro was terminated in 1703, when they returned to episcopal control.

A hypogeum (1st century BC) consisting of two or three small rooms was discovered nearby in 1869.  It contained four travertine urns:

  • the inscriptions of a man called Presnte and his mother were in Etruscan; and

  • those of his wife, Hastia Aemili Praesenti and another lady were in Latin, so they probably post-dated the municipalisation of Perugia in 89BC.

The urn of Hastia Aemili Praesenti is exhibited in the Museo Archeologico.  A number of objects (3rd or 4th century BC) that were found nearby are exhibited in the Early Etruscan Section of the museum.  These are obviously much older than the hypogeum, and must have been heirlooms.

Santa Caterina Nuova (1647-9)

This site had an involved history before its acquisition by the nuns of Santa Caterina in 1648:

  • It seems to have belonged to the nuns of San Francesco delle Donne in the 16th century, when it was dedicated to St Clare (Santa Chiara).

  • The Cistercian nuns of Santa Giuliana bought it in 1547 because they feared that their original nunnery was to be demolished to make way for the Rocca Paolina.  They commissioned Galeazzo Alessi to design a new church and nunnery dedicated to St Bernard, and Cardinal Tiberio Crispo laid the foundation stone.  In fact, the nuns' fears for Santa Giuliana were not realised, and they never moved here.

  • The complex was used instead, from 1595 until 1622, for the Collegio di San Bernardo, which formed part of the Seminary.

  • In 1622, the site passed to a community of reformed Carmelites while they built their new church and convent of Santa Teresa (see Walk III).

As noted above, the church took on its present dedication in 1647, when Benedictine nuns from Santa Caterina Vecchia acquired it.  They seem to have modified the facade:

  • Reliefs of St Catherine’s wheel appear on each side  of the door to the left that leads to the nunnery.

  • The portal bears the date 1648.

The nuns formally transferred to their new church and nunnery in 1649. 

In 1702, the Cassinese monks of San Pietro asked to be relieved of responsibility for the nuns, and Pope Clement XI duly placed them once more under episcopal control in the following year.  The church was re-modeled and re-consecrated in 1720.

The community was suppressed in 1810-15 and again in 1860.  Part of the nunnery was demolished in the late 19th century to make way for the Staffa factory, which manufactured matches.  The nuns subsequently returned, and the surviving buildings now house the only community of Benedictine nuns that survives in Perugia.

Works Removed from the Church

Mystical Marriage of St Catherine (ca. 1530)

This altarpiece is attributed to Bernardino di Mariotto.  The nuns probably commissioned it for their original nunnery outside Porta Sant’ Angelo and brought it with them to Santa Caterina Nuova in 1648.  It was transferred  to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 29) in 1869. 

Return to Walk V.