Santa Maria della Neve al Portico is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church and convent located on a rural site on Via del Podestà #86 in the suburban neighborhood of

Galluzzo Galluzzo is part of quartiere 3 of the Italian city of Florence, Italy, located in the southern extremity of the Florentine commune. It is known for the celebrated Carthusian monastery, the Galluzzo or Florence Charterhouse (''Certosa di Firenze ...

southeast of the urban center of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It remains a monastery and is also known as the ''Convento Il Portico'' and now houses the ''Istituti Religiosi Femminili Suore Stimmatine''.

History

The first documentation of the monastery is from 1240, when an eremitic female Augustinian monastery was founded at the site. In 1340, documents confirm that Bishop Francesco da Cingoli, with the posthumous endowment by Benvenuta di Duccio, widow of Francesco Morelli di Candeli, had granted funds to build a proper monastery on this site that was near the ''Strada Romana''. First dedicated to Santa Maria della Disciplina, the convent continued to grow and add decorations over the centuries. In 1529, during the siege of Florence, the nuns were forced to abandon the monastery and take shelter in the city, and returned to a buildings heavily vandalized by the imperial troops. A new church was begun in 1696 on the west side of the convent. Previously the old church had an enclosed interior second story choir that separated the nuns from the visiting faithful, this was moved to an external loggia. The church was reconsecrated in 1705 as ''Santa Maria della Neve'', in memory of a putatively miraculous summer snowfall that occurred on 15 August 1702. Following the suppression of religious orders in the late 18th-century, the site became a public school and conservatory. In 1852, it was returned to the religious authorities and made the

motherhouse A motherhouse or mother house is the principal house or community for a Catholic religious community.YourDictionaryMotherhouse/ref> One example is the Missionaries of Charity's motherhouse in Kolkata, which functions as the congregation's headquart ...

of the order of the ''Suore Stimmatine'' or also ''Povere Figlie delle Sacre Stimmate di San Francesco d'Assisi'' ( Stigmatine Sisters or Poor Daughters of the Holy Stigmata of Saint Francis). The new church has a frescoed ceiling depicting a ''Glory of St Augustine'' by Antonio Domenico Bamberini. The main Altarpieces depicts the ''Madonna and Child granting the belt to St Augustine and St Monica'' by

Pietro Dandini Pietro Dandini (12 April 1646 – 26 November 1712) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence. Biography He is also called ''Pier Dandini''. He was the son (or nephew) and pupil of the painter Vincenzo Dandini. P ...

. Above the nave wall is a crucifix (1340-1360) flanked by two frescoes (1700) depicting the ''Madonna Addolorata'' and ''St John Evangelist''. The church has a late-

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

style fresco, likely from the old church, depicting the ''Apparition of the Virgin before a praying St Bernard flanked by the Archangel Raphael and St Nicola di Bari''. In the former refectory of the monastery is a fresco depicting the ''Last Supper'' (circa 1520) attributed to

Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio Ridolfo di Domenico Bigordi, better known as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (14 February 1483 – 6 June 1561) was an Italian Renaissance painter active mainly in Florence. He was the son of Domenico Ghirlandaio. Biography He was born in Florence. Since he ...

. The old church, adjacent to the former cemetery of the nuns, has the old church with two small canvases (1470-1471) by

Bicci di Lorenzo Bicci di Lorenzo (1373–1452) was an Italian painter and sculptor, active in Florence. He was born in Florence in 1373, the son of the painter, Lorenzo di Bicci, whose workshop he joined. He married in 1418, and in 1424 was registered in th ...

.Palazzo Spinelli
entry on convent and church.

References

Roman Catholic churches in Florence 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Monasteries in Tuscany {{Tuscany-RC-church-stub