Convento S.Maria del Giglio, via Madonna del Giglio, Bolsena
tel +39 3286027357 - +39 3335710464 - +39 0761 799066
info@conventobolsena.org                skypeconventobolsena

rooms

workspace

esplorando
the convent | the association | activities | where | contacts

the cloister seen from the bell-tower

The Convent

The building starts early 1600, after the local community decides to construct a church on the spot of the small Middle Aged tabernacle, dedicated to the 'Madonna del Giglio' (The Madonna of the Lily).

In 1626 the cloister was already finished and frescoed, and so the first part of the building is completed, where first there was just a small block for the 'holy' guards of the original sanctuary.

On the crossroad from the streets for Viterbo-Roma and Orvieto, there seems to have been a perfect spot for a break for the pilgrims on the via Francigena, who wanted to derivate to go to Orvieto and visit, after the altar of the Eucharistic Miracle and the tomb of S. Cristina in Bolsena, also the chapel of the miracle in the Duomo in Orvieto, bishop's see.

download chronology in PDF (Italian)

Sufficient for the needs of the first monks who took care of the sanctuary, the convent starts to get too small in the middle of 1700, when it is, also thanks to the contribution of one of the members of the order who becomes cardinal and originates from the nearby town S. Lorenzo Nuovo, enlarged by the two wings towards the West.

In the nineteenth-century they add a floor to the north wing. The convent manages to give hospitality to over 70 permanent residents. After the second world war there is a progressive decrease of the presence of monks.

At present the Convent is owned by the Roman Province of the Minor Franciscan Brothers, who recovered it from the state after the expropriation in 1870. Since 1997 it is managed by the association 'Punti di Vista' who runs, among other activities, a guest house, used to host seminars and initiatives to promote the values on which the Association is constituted, while at the same timecontinuing the maintenance and the ungoing recovery .


.