The convent was built in the fifteenth century. by the will of Cobella Ruffo Sanseverino, who became Countess of Altomonte in 1402. The convent structure passed in 1443 to the Dominican Fathers, together with the Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione.The cenoby, gradually enlarged over the centuries, was above all a center of theological and scientific studies. Among the many characters that were guests, it is worth mentioning the storyteller Matteo Bandello and the philosopher Tommaso Campanella, the latter here, as a segregated, conceived and wrote, around 1589, the Philosophia sensibus demonstrata.After the monastic suppression of the nineteenth century, especially the definitive one of 1866, the complex began a slow decline, which led in time to the definitive closure of the church and the convent.The building, now a municipal property, has been the seat of the Civic Museum since 1980 and houses the Civic Library, the Historical Library and a hall for conventions and exhibitions.
