Built in an elevated position on the slopes of Montorfano, the Cologne convent arose on a site already occupied by several dwellings, clustered around a church dedicated to St. James. Domenico Bollani, bishop of Brescia from 1559, granted the site to a Capuchin community. The transfer was sanctioned by an official deed, dated June 29, 1568, in which the Cologne community donated the church of St. James, the nearby houses, and what remained of the ancient fortifications to the Capuchin friars: a new order, founded in 1525 as a branch of the Franciscans Minor, with the aim of returning to the original evangelical message desired by St. Francis.<\/p>\n
The Capuchins arrived on site in 1568, and over the following centuries made all the necessary changes to make the site suitable for a monastery, adapting and equipping the church with new spaces, such as the cloister, which still exists, and the cells for the friars’ rest.<\/p>\n
With the establishment of the new order, the convent experienced a particularly rich period, hosting intellectuals and illustrious personalities, becoming an important point of reference until its suppression, which occurred during the Napoleonic era.<\/p>\n
The church of San Giacomo bears witness to the site’s appearance before the arrival of the Capuchins. Its fa\u00e7ade displays the typical forms of 15th-century Lombard sacred architecture, with a gabled roof and a continuous fa\u00e7ade, which must once have been completely painted, as evidenced by the extensive traces of plaster still visible.<\/p>\n
The fa\u00e7ade is embellished by a Renaissance portal with pilasters decorated with candelabra, surmounted by a round arch enclosing a lunette. Like many portals of contemporary churches and palaces scattered across the Franciacorta, Sebino, and Valle Camonica areas, it was assembled using a reddish stone, contrasting in color with the rest of the fa\u00e7ade. This stone, called Simona stone, derives from the place where it was quarried, perhaps as early as the 14th century, in the Simone, or Cimone, area of \u200b\u200bValle Camonica.<\/p>\n
The appearance of the liturgical hall, though completely plastered, suggests an original division into three naves, punctuated by square pillars with gray stone bases, upon which large round arches rested. The single nave was barrel-vaulted, likely after the Capuchins settled there, when it was reorganized according to criteria of harmony and spatial unity, which were to have no dividing elements between the nave and the altar, in accordance with the new dictates of the Counter-Reformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":809,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categorie_arte":[416],"comuni":[94],"class_list":["post-5217","arte_e_cultura","type-arte_e_cultura","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie_arte-monasteries","comuni-cologne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n