Chiesa di Santa Chiara

Chiesa di Santa Chiara stands in Italy as a compact church with an intimate, theatrical interior. Bernardo Antonio Vittone reshaped its almost octagonal space between 1742 and 1745. Curved balconies, balustrades and delicate stucco create a Rococo setting where concave and convex surfaces keep the walls moving. A sober façade balances the interior’s ornament with paired lesenes, a clean cornice and carved wooden doors.

The church began within a Clarisse monastery documented from the early fourteenth century. Behind the high altar, the former nuns’ choir still gives the building unusual depth. A double dome divided into eight segments rises overhead, with heart-shaped windows at its base and a small cupola above. Since 2015, the former convent has hosted a youth social cohousing project, while restoration supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo has aimed to recover the eighteenth-century character since 2016.

Nicola Arduino painted the main altarpiece, which depicts the Sacred Heart. Look upwards again: those small heart-shaped openings send shifting shafts of light across the compact interior.