This convent was founded in 1646 thanks to the will of Cavalier Francesco Simoni, a wealthy local landowner, who had thus wished to endow his town with an important cultural and religious landmark.
The building, which takes place around the cloister, is a clear example of Franciscan anti-architecture, espucing the severity in simplicity of their rule. Despite their inherent vocation for the poor arts, the Capuchin convents in Sardinia were nevertheless the cradle of an art of wood marquetry that was fully developed in the 17th century, leaving us with important wooden sculptures whose cultural value is fully recognized today.
We can thus say that, although it cannot be counted among the ancient medieval monasteries, for a long time this convent maintained its function as a meeting point of faith, knowledge and tradition in the Village.
One tradition, which was certainly also handed down by the Capuchin friars, was that of traditional medicine and herbalism.
In the gardens of the Capuchins, medicinal herbs were cultivated with which they prepared medicines stored in their apothecas (pharmacies), which were made available to anyone who needed them. And these were undoubtedly useful during the great bubonic plague epidemic that, having arrived from Spain via Alghero, had spread across much of Sardinia in the years from 1652 to 1657, affecting Masullas as well.
Today the term Monastery is increasingly accepted as a synonym for Convent, more properly indicative of the residences of religious of mendicant orders, such as, precisely, this one of the Capuchins. But convent derives from "conventus," meaning "gathering, reunion," and for this reason it was also understood as a place of meeting and reference for all small agricultural communities, as it was, precisely, Masullas of the past centuries.
Therefore, we can conclude by saying that today this place finds again with merit the ancient role of meeting and culture, human and scientific, that had characterized the first great monasteries of the past.
MUSEUM
This Mineralogical and Paleontological Museum was born in an old convent of Capuchin Friars, whose sober architecture does not make us forget how decisive, for the cultural and scientific development of the West, the work of the religious in monasteries and convents has been since the European Middle Ages.
Scientific mineralogy and crystallography were born thanks to a religious man, the Canon of Nótre Dame in Paris: Abbot RJ. Haùy, a distinguished scientist who lived in France between the 18th and 19th centuries. It was he who introduced the concepts of crystal lattice, crystal symmetry and sorted all minerals by crystallographic, as well as chemical, categories. Not surprisingly, these concepts are based on the idea of regularity and perfection in simplicity, which are also the basis of monastic life.
Legal hours:
mornings: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (Wednesday through Sunday)
Afternoon: 4-7 p.m. (Wednesday to Sunday)
Daylight saving time: morning: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (Wednesday to Sunday)
afternoon: 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Wednesday through Sunday)
Closed: Jan. 1, Easter Sunday, July 2 (morning), Dec. 24-25-26, Dec. 31
MonteArci GeoMuseum, former Capuchin Convent
Address: Via Cappuccini, 57, 09090
Phone: 0783 991122
Site:
http://www.geomuseomontearci.it/Location inserted by
CHO.earth