Chiesa e Convento di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria

Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Sulmona preserves a Baroque church within a former Dominican convent. Its curving stone facade introduces an elliptical interior shaped by rebuilding after the earthquake of 1706.

Why it matters

The complex traces its conventual foundation to 1325. Its later architecture reflects the renewal of Sulmona's religious buildings after destructive earthquakes, combining a centralised room with an elaborate decorative setting.

What to notice

The facade pairs concave side sections with a projecting centre, ordered by pilasters and a broken pediment. A carved wheel recalls Catherine's traditional martyrdom. Within, deep side chapels open from the elliptical space. Frescoes attributed to Giambattista Gamba depict the saint's glory and other religious subjects, while marble altar work and gilded wooden furnishings add eighteenth-century craftsmanship.

Context and history

The earthquakes of 1456 and 1706 led to successive reconstruction, with the Corvi family associated with the earlier campaign. Later decline and suppression changed the convent's function, and much of it became a school. The church's twentieth-century use as an auditorium added a civic cultural phase to its monastic history.