Within the walls of the Antico Convento Santa Chiara, today a charming hotel in the heart of Sarteano, lie over five centuries of history: a disputed will, decades of litigation, an enclosed convent that lasted from 1584 to 1866, a Napoleonic suppression, a forced transfer lived through tears, and finally, rebirth as a school and then as a hotel.
This is that story, reconstructed from documents held at the Episcopal Archive of Chiusi, the State Archive of Siena, and the Historical Archive of the Municipality of Sarteano.
An inheritance disputed for forty years
The wish to found a women's monastery dedicated to Saint Clare originated in a private will. On 27 October 1521, in the convent of San Francesco in Sarteano, the wealthy Benedetto di Bartolomeo Bosti settled his estate before the friars themselves, called as witnesses. Having already lost a son and sensing his end was near, he left everything to his wife Domenica, on one precise condition: that she not remarry, and that she use the inheritance to build a convent in his memory.
Domenica did not honour the agreement. She remarried Domenico di Carlo Fanelli and, to avoid losing the estate, used forged documents to claim her husband's inheritance consisted only of debts. A brief from the Holy See dated 15 March 1524 initially sided with her, turning the planned convent into a simple ecclesiastical benefice. But the friars of San Francesco, who knew Bosti well, brought the matter before the Apostolic Penitentiary: the inheritance, it turned out, was not burdened with debts at all, but was worth over 3,000 florins.
The affair grew more complicated still with the war of Siena — the city fell on 17 April 1555, Sarteano was placed under siege and capitulated on 19 January 1556, suffering severe devastation — and continued with a second dispute, this time against Virginia, Domenica's sister. Only on 13 September 1561, forty years after the will, did the ecclesiastical court of Siena close the case, ordering the restitution of all the assets.
From decision to construction: 1562-1584
Once the dispute was resolved, construction of the convent was decided the following year, but by 1566 work still had not begun: funds were lacking. On 20 October 1566 the general council of the Sarteano community decided to supplement the resources with revenue from the lands of Fontevetriana. Guasparre di Costantino Tencaccioli, a leading figure in Sarteano at the time, was placed in charge of the project as treasurer and chamberlain; in the years that followed he also oversaw the restoration of the church of the Madonna del Belriguardo (1571) and the construction of the new Capuchin monastery (1595).
The monastery finally opened in 1584, sixty-three years after Bosti's will. The first two nuns, sister Cherubina Zucchini and abbess sister Beatrice Mannucci, both came from Volterra. In 1602, with a motu proprio of Pope Clement VIII, jurisdiction over the convent passed from the Franciscan friars of San Francesco to the Bishop of Chiusi.
Key milestones of the founding
- 1521 — will of Benedetto Bosti, the first founding act
- 1561 — end of the legal dispute over the inheritance
- 1566 — the Municipality resolves to fund the works with revenue from Fontevetriana
- 1584 — the monastery opens with just two nuns, from Volterra
- 1602 — jurisdiction passes to the Bishop of Chiusi
Three centuries of enclosure and growth
The monastic community grew rapidly: by 1625 the nuns numbered a steady twenty-five. To enter the convent, young women from Sarteano (the "citole") needed the approval of the town council — a link that shows just how intertwined the monastery was with the civic life of the village. The period of greatest growth came in the eighteenth century: in 1706 the convent expanded with the purchase of nine neighbouring houses, and in 1731 a further restoration and expansion marked what historians consider its peak.
The first great suppression of contemplative orders, ordered in 1782 by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, did not directly affect Santa Chiara: only a temporary drop in the number of nuns was recorded. The real turning point would come a few decades later, with Napoleon.
The Napoleonic suppression and the forced transfer
On 29 April 1808 a decree signed by Edoardo Dauchy, administrator of Tuscany on behalf of Napoleon, ordered the suppression of convents and the seizure of their assets. The nuns were sent away: some returned to their families, others were taken in by families in Sarteano. The convent's farmland was rented out to four local landowners, on the agreement that part of the agricultural proceeds would still be paid to the nuns as a pension.
With Napoleon's fall, repeated petitions from the people of Sarteano secured from Grand Duke Ferdinando III, on 30 June 1815, authorisation to reopen the monastery — although its assets were only partly returned. In the years that followed, another, less dramatic but equally telling dispute arose: the administration of the Opere Pie asked the Poor Clares, an enclosed order, to provide free education to the village girls. The matter remained unresolved for decades, until the 1851 compromise: the nuns agreed to pay the Municipality 672 lire a year to fund a lay teacher, thereby avoiding the obligation to teach in person.
1866: the end of monastic life
The law of 7 July 1866 suppressed religious corporations throughout the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 October 1866 the Municipality of Sarteano, led by mayor Ottavio Lunghini, took possession of the monastery: eighteen nuns were still there at the time. Faced with the choice between retiring to private life or transferring to the convent of San Girolamo in San Gimignano, the nuns refused both options, deeply attached as they were to the place and to the Sarteano community.
A third way was then found: Monsignor Liverani, a scholar of the history of Chiusi, purchased the guesthouse facing the monastery and granted it to the nuns free of charge, and they were moved there. To allow them to maintain their enclosure even during that final, brief journey, the people of Sarteano built a covered passage of reeds between the convent and the guesthouse, so that the nuns could not be seen. The tears of that day remained long in popular memory, gathered orally by the historian don Giacomo Bersotti from the voices of the village's elders.
The number of nuns dwindled steadily: there were only eight left in 1885. The last, sister Brigida Badii, died on 2 December 1930 in the hospice of the Venerable Arciconfraternita di Misericordia, symbolically closing almost three and a half centuries of monastic life in Sarteano.
"How times had changed: from when the Sarteano community spent its own money to build the monastery, to now worrying about taking possession of it."— don Giacomo Bersotti, historian of Franciscan life in Sarteano
From municipal school to charming hotel
Freed from the nuns' presence, the building — three floors, eighty-five rooms, two loggias, a vegetable garden, a cemetery, a church and a sacristy — was requested by the Municipality from the Fondo per il Culto to become an elementary school and a music school; the grant arrived on 24 July 1882. The church, dedicated to Saint Clare, became a music hall and still hosts Sarteano's town band today. During the fascist era the building was also used for military drills.
After a new municipal school building was constructed, the convent fell into a period of neglect, until it was bought by private owners who restored it and transformed it into today's hotel and restaurant, rescuing the building from decay and giving new life to one of the oldest places in Sarteano.
About the sources
- Episcopal Archive of Chiusi
- State Archive of Siena (Fondo Bandini)
- Historical Archive of the Municipality of Sarteano
- Unpublished research by don Giacomo Bersotti (1960s) and Aldo Sita (1990s)
- Research by Luca Aggravi, June 2026
Frequently asked questions
In what year was the Convento Santa Chiara in Sarteano founded?
The monastery opened in 1584, sixty-three years after Benedetto Bosti's 1521 will that had first envisioned its founding. At first there were only two nuns, sister Cherubina Zucchini and abbess sister Beatrice Mannucci, both originally from Volterra.
Why did more than sixty years pass between the 1521 will and the 1584 opening?
The founder's widow tried to keep the inheritance by forging documents to make it appear burdened with debts. The dispute, which reached the Apostolic Penitentiary and the ecclesiastical court of Siena, was only resolved in 1561. Years of war (the siege of Siena and Sarteano, 1555-1556) and the slow process of raising construction funds, only decided in 1566, added further delay.
When and why did the Poor Clare nuns leave the convent?
Under the 1866 suppression law, the Municipality of Sarteano took possession of the monastery on 30 October of that year. The eighteen nuns then present refused both retirement to private life and transfer to San Gimignano, and were moved to the guesthouse facing the convent. The last Poor Clare, sister Brigida Badii, died in 1930.
How did the Antico Convento Santa Chiara become a hotel?
After the nuns left, the building became an elementary school and a music school from 1882. After a new municipal school building was constructed, it fell into disuse, until private owners purchased and restored it, transforming it into today's hotel and restaurant.
How many convents were there in Sarteano?
Four: San Francesco, the Capuchins, the Sasso hermitage (or Sasso dei Monaci), and the women's monastery of Santa Chiara. Saint Francis of Assisi visited Sarteano at least five times between 1212 and 1215, and episodes from his biography are set right in the village's hermitage.
Antico Convento Santa Chiara
Within the same walls that have kept centuries of silence, the Antico Convento Santa Chiara today welcomes those seeking authenticity and quiet in the heart of Tuscany.