Chiostri di San Domenico

The Chiostri di San Domenico preserve the former Dominican convent of Reggio Emilia. Its courtyards and later wings record the adaptation of a medieval religious foundation to military, agricultural and cultural uses.

Why it matters

Founded in 1233, the convent became a substantial centre of religious life and learning. Its later history reflects successive changes in civic authority: an Inquisition tribunal and prisons, military accommodation, and a stud depot that gave the complex the popular name degli Stalloni.

What to notice

The sixteenth-century Chiostro Grande has porticoes enclosing its courtyard. In the passage between the cloisters, surviving seventeenth-century fresco lunettes depict Christ with a Dominican saint and the Madonna with Dominican nuns. Robert Morris's Less Than, installed in 2005, introduced contemporary art into the smaller cloister.

Context and history

The foundation followed the preaching of fra Giacomino da Reggio. Fifteenth-century expansion under Girolamo Casotti added a library. The complex served as a military hospital in 1702 and later as barracks. The stud depot dates to 1860, while the west wing known as Castelnuovo was added in 1872. Subsequent adaptations connected the former convent with music education, archives and the study of the Resistance.