| It is believed to have been built in 1477 by Giovanni Antonio Del Balzo Orsini, prince of Taranto. Until 1597 the Observing Fathers and then the Reformed Fathers were guests of the convent.
The Reformed Fathers changed the internal structure of the convent, pulling down the walls between the two dorms and the rooms and created several cells.
The convent, in close proximity of Villa Peripato, has been used as a judicial prison and this activity has modified the arrangement of its internal structures, not allowing to improve its architectonic aspect. Merodio has offered a very accurate description of the convent in the middle of the 17th century. The church is extremely interesting with its elegant chapels, and among them is the one dedicated to the Saint of Padova, with a statue of the prince, at natural height, venerating Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and, next to him, the Franciscan saint.
Nowadays in the building there is the headquarter of the Superintendence of Apulia for the Landscape. |