Church and Convent of the Capuchins

At the end of the steep ascent of  Via Annibale Caro, for those coming from Giacomo Matteotti square, we find the church and the convent of the Capuchin Fathers.

From 1584 to 1622 (date of commencement of construction of the church and the convent) of the Capuchins Tolfa had lived in an unidentified “earmarks humida” of the place, as was their habit in the beginning of the history of the Order.

With their poor clothes and bare feet, preaching to the people and taking care of patients most in need, the Capuchins, in Tolfa as elsewhere, were able to win the esteem and ‘affection of the people that took shape just building a church with convent, at the expense of the municipality, the contractors of the alum mines and, above all, Dario Pierleoni actual founder of the church complex, as is shown by an inscription on his tomb in the church earthy.

Among the friars who lived in the convent of the Capuchins tolfetano, it must be remembered of course the Blessed Crispin of Viterbo who lived there from 1694 to 1696. Popular devotion remembers him as particularly active in the loving care that was able to turn in those years to the many villagers fallen prey to a serious outbreak. Of particular value is the cloister with a central well all made of local trachyte.