San Giuseppe del Monastero di Clausura is a mid 20th century monastic church at Via della Nocetta 83 in the suburb of Bravetta, just to the east of the park of the Villa Doria Pamphilj (the park wall follows the road here). This is in the Gianicolense suburbab district.
The dedication is to St Joseph.
History[]
The monastery belongs to a community of Discalced Carmelite nuns, which is the direct descendent of one founded in the 16th century at San Giuseppe a Capo le Case. See the page on that church for their earlier history.
After the nuns had their convent at Capo le Case sequestered by the Italian government in 1873, they were allowed to occupy a small part of the original complex. This was grossly unsatisfactory and actually bad for their health, because the order is enclosed and its nuns should not leave their convent of residence.
In 1932, the community moved to temporary accommodation at Via Lancelotti in Tor Pignattara. They were to remain here for over forty years, but were in receipt of a very munificent benefaction from a family called Sullivan of San Francisco, USA. This allowed them to build a new convent with a full-sized church, finished in 1957.
The name Monasterio di Clausura indicates that the nuns here are practising their traditional rule of enclosure.
Appearance[]
The convent layout is traditional, with a cloister. The church is part of the conventual buildings, and has very low dome with a shallow conical tiled roof. The other roofs are also pitched and tiled.
The square cloister is to the south-west of the church, with ranges on three sides of a central formal garden.
The fabric is in red brick, very simple with no architectural pretensions. The entrance has a loggia with four square brick piers, the inner two supporting an elliptical arch with a tiled gable forming a prothyrium. The gabled church frontage above is whitewashed, with an arched niche containing a statue of Our Lady.