The Church of St Peter in Vineis (chiesa di San Pietro in Vineis) in Anagni dates back to the twelfth century and is part of the Princes of Piemonte boarding school.
Its name comes from the vineyards that surrounded it and was once part of a Benedictine monastery for men.
Then in 1255 Pope Alexander IV canonized Santa Chiara in the Cathedral of Anagni and, the following year, the convent was entrusted to the Poor Clares, the order of the cloistered nuns created by Santa Chiara.
In 1556, during the occupation by the Spaniards in the war against the papacy, the Spaniards took control of the headquarters.
The nuns were moved to the centre of Anagni, where they still have their headquarters and re-dedicated their church to Santa Chiara.
The convent was then entrusted to the Capuchins friars until the unification of Italy when it became part of the state property and was used to house disadvantaged people.
In 1926 the architect Alberto Calza Bini began the construction of the boarding school
He decided to restore the church and to highlight it with its frescoes and the cosmateschi floors.
The church has a Romanesque style and you enter through a staircase that leads to a portico with three arches that correspond to the three internal naves.
The interior immediately amazes for its simplicity and the Cosmateschi floor, the refined geometric mosaic floor of coloured marbles that takes its name from the famous family of the Cosmati, marble workers and artists of Rome, who were very active in the thirteenth century.
Inside you can admire some frescoes: a Nativity and a rare image of the washing of the Christ Child, where a woman carries the clothes for the newborn Baby.
The most amazing artistic part of the church is in the Matroneo delle Monache (Choir of the Poor Clares above the left aisle) the place where the nuns attended the religious celebrations without being observed.
There is a cycle of frescoes for a length of 12 metres and a height of 2 metres illustrating their history through the Passion of Christ.
Before the arrival of the Poor Clares this space had already been frescoed in 1230, but in 1255 (year of canonization of Santa Chiara) a part of the room was plastered and a new fresco was created.
13 sections representing the Passion, the Resurrection, the Apparition of Jesus to the Apostles, the stigmatization of St. Francis and the depiction of St. Aurelia, St. Scholastica and St. Benedict.
At the centre of the frescoes is one of the coronation of the Virgin by Jesus, which takes on a particular meaning for the role of women in the Christian religion and in the life of man.
It is the woman who seems to have the task of bringing a message of hope to the world and that is why the role of the Clarisse sisters is important.
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