Sisters in a building that has had a troubled history

History of the Salesian Monastery

The Order of the Nuns of the Visitation or Salesians, born in Annecy in Savoy on 6th June 1610 but very widespread in France, reached Nice and the Principality of Monaco and from there reached Western Liguria.
Called to Sanremo, also thanks to a considerable bequest from the Avv. Don Carlo Borelli of Triora for his daughter Angela Caterina who wished to be a Visitor, the Monastery of Annecy decided to allocate for the foundation of a Monastery in Sanremo Mother Maria Geronima Dufour as Superior, Sr Luigia Maddalena Langlois (Savoyard), Sr Luigia Francesca Pericaud (French) and Sr Maria Angela Dalmatia. All very well penetrated by the spirit of the founders.

Having overcome the medieval rules that regulated the distances to be respected in the foundation of the new religious buildings, the four sisters of S. Francesco di Sales, who arrived in the city in 1666, were hosted for some years in some rooms of the upper Palm district (the current Canonica di San Giuseppe), used in the past by the Turchine Nuns and the Discalced Augustinians.

Naturally, this group of small rooms were not sufficient to accommodate further arrivals of novices and nuns as they would have liked, so they decided to build a new, larger Monastery and chose a large area between Via Romana (today Piazza Colombo and Corso Garibaldi) almost opposite the convent of Santa Maria della Consolazione (later Santa Maria degli Angeli), the little road to the port and the left bank of the S. Francesco stream, in a flat place, slightly sloping to the south, rich in orange, lemon and cedar trees.

The building of the monastery was still possible because of the bequest of Carlo Borrelli, but it was also embellished by the munificence of the Grimaldi Family of Monaco, being Mother Luigia Maria Teresa Grimaldi (Monaco 1662 - Sanremo 1741), sister of the Crown Prince Antonio l., since 1707.

On 8th October 1675 the Salesian Nuns moved into the new Monastery while it was still under construction. It was enlarged in 1708 when the adjoining oratory was built on the initiative of the abbess mother Luigia M. Teresa Grimaldi.
After the death of Mother Grimaldi, on the occasion of the Beatification (1751) of St. Giovanna Francesca di Chantal and the first feast in honour of the Sacred Heart 1755 (whose devotion from the Monastery of Sanremo spread all over Liguria) Mother Teresa Margherita Spinola (1708 - 1774) carried out important works continuing the formative work of the Nuns and the educators, in the wake of Mother Grimaldi.

With the implementation of the Anticlerical Laws of the time, in 1892 the Nuns were definitively expropriated of everything, the building was ceded to the State which used it partly as a court, partly as a barracks and later as a school, and they retired to Via Visitazione, in a building not suitable for use as a monastery.

In 1935, also because of the generosity of the Marsaglia Family, they bought land and property in Viale Carducci and built the present monastery there.

In 1960 the building began to show problems of instability that worsened to the point that from 1999 onwards consolidation works began. Five kilometres of piling was carried out which stopped the slow erosion of the structure downwards which could lead to problems of stability. Thanks to the generosity of private individuals and institutions, in ten years the load-bearing structure was recovered, the roofs were renovated, the plastering was redone and the electrical system was renewed, in accordance with the law. A monastic guest house has been created which can accommodate 10 people.
The artistic heritage, bound by the Superintendence of Genoa, has been recovered, including 17th century paintings and a collection of precious sacred vestments, found by the nuns and wisely preserved, a treasure of art, history and tradition that belongs to the monastic community but also to the whole Sanremo.

When Pope John Paul II was asked to close the Monastery of the Visitation of Sanremo, considering that the Monastery of Carmel was also present in the territory, he replied that due to the presence of the Casino two convents of contemplative nuns were barely enough in Sanremo.
This allowed the community of Visitandine to remain there for many more years.

The church was also open to the public for those who wished to share the prayer times of the Liturgy of the Hours with the Sisters.
The Community welcomed groups or individuals who wished to live moments of intense and silent prayer; it also offered people who wished to deepen their spiritual life and the Charism of the Order the possibility of meetings in a parlour.

According to the wish expressed by the Holy Founder, Francis de Sales, the Community could welcome within the cloister - after presentation by the parish priest or priests and trusted persons - those who wished to have an experience of cloistered life, both for vocational discernment and to enrich their Christian life.

(sources: texts from "Sanremo" series "Le città della Liguria" by various authors, "Sanremo, storia e Anima di una città" by Enzo Bernardini, other sources; images from private archives)

On 26 March 2017, on the door of the church, the communication of the diocesan bishop Antonio Suetta had been posted on the door of the church, warning the faithful that on that Sunday, the last liturgical celebration would take place at 10 a.m., celebrated by Bishop Emeritus Alberto Maria Careggio.
A decision that anticipated another, much clearer one: the departure of the religious community and the closure of the convent, in which only three nuns remained.
In the following days a visiting nun arrived with the task of "papal commissioner" to verify the state of the Monastery and start the procedures for its closure.

The structure, which had more than sixty rooms, probably entered the availability of the Episcopal Curia.

The Mother Superior, Luciana Gasparini, who had held the Monastery for more than fifteen years and now dismissed, had tried to "safeguard" the permanence of the Order of the Visitation in Sanremo over the years, asking to welcome "sisters" from the monasteries, including those in Latin America, who chose with joy to live their vocation in Sanremo.
In recent years, however, from eight sisters the cloistered reality has fallen to three components, a sign of the vocational difficulty but more generally of the Order's desire to leave the Province of Imperia.

It is the last act of a process consumed in silence, like the life of the monastic community of the Visitation. The Convent closes and an important piece of the history of the city of Sanremo, not only religious, not only social, leaves.

(sources: from "Riviera24", article of 26 March 2017; images from Web)

Additional note

Since the Sisters abandoned the convent building in 1892 to move elsewhere, the building, which had become state property, was used as barracks for the bersaglieri and this use continued until the beginning of the 1920s, when the military moved into the new barracks in San Martino.

The structure then housed the Tribunal, several schools and some offices and bodies of the fascist period.

In the courtyard behind it, facing Via Roma, already used as the Bersaglieri's parade ground, the flower market was placed, which was initially held outdoors, but after a few years it was covered with a metal canopy and at the end of the 1930's a front in masonry and reinforced concrete was erected bearing the large inscription "Mercato dei Fiori".

During the war, the evening before 20 october 1944, a convoy of German lorries, loaded with boats and assault vehicles, explosives, torpedoes and other ammunition was brought there.



On the morning of the 20th, in the sea in front of the city, the French destroyer "Forbin", probably employed in de-mining activities, crossed the sea.

A cannon salvo fired from a German defensive position triggered the reaction of the French ship, and a edging, perhaps accidental, hit the building, exploding the war material under the canopy and causing the destruction of the former convent and very serious damage to the surrounding buildings.

In the post-war period, after the rubble had been cleared, a bus station with gardens in front of it was built on the same area in the 1956.

(sources: notes by Sergio Carbonetto; images from private archives and Ceresani)