Construction of the Capuchin Convent began in 1698. For nearly three hundred years it has been home to the Capuchin order of monks, who had come to Caraglio as early as 1607 to restore the Catholic faith because the local inhabitants had, in fact, joined Calvinism en masse.
Both the convent and the church continue to be very interesting testimonies to Capuchin architecture. The church dedicated to Saint Mary of the Angels preserves very valuable wooden altars, and since 1995 the Convent has housed the Marcovaldo cultural association, which offers top-level cultural initiatives.
The layout of the building reflects the symbolic forms and rules established by the Franciscan Order, which are meant to convey the concept of poverty and humility that the Saint from Assisi preached among the populace: bare walls, the use of simple materials, no superfluous rooms or furnishings, with the functional areas of the convent arranged around the cloister. Capuchin architecture is part of a conception of art that aims at eliminating all formalism and irrationality, in which each element must find its own logical spatial arrangement. Therefore, art was also used to win over the faithful, through its immediacy on the heart.
The Park, which belonged to the monks at the time, was arranged in a series of gardens and fields; a veritable work camp necessary to provide subsistence to the community.
This convent-park offers visitors the same meditative atmosphere of peace and sobriety that was breathed over the centuries by the people and the religions of this area at the foot of the mountains. The simple materials, the uniform and bare architecture, all yearn for the spiritual, life-giving warmth of the sun but burst forth in the exuberance of the Riviera. Drenched as they are in the awareness of the imminent long winter of man, they convey a sense of the occult economy of light. The church keeps watch over the place and hands out as alms a sense of conscientious retreat. The garden will bloom here with works of Contemporary Art, to accentuate an unusual combination of colours and brightness.