Church Immacolata Concezione - Pistoia - Tuscany

The Church of the Immaculate Conception - also known as the Church of San Francesco di Paola or the Church of the Capuchins - is a 14th-century Pistoie church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, in Via degli Armeni.
In 1614 the Brothers Minim settled in the place that had been inhabited by Armenian Basilian monks since 1343, who changed the original title of San Basilio and Sant'Onofrio to San Francesco di Paola. The renovations still visible date from that time, when the cloister was enlarged and the church was rebuilt with a large loggia open on three sides. The monastery was dissolved in 1782 and during the Napoleonic period the church was used as an ironworks. In 1866 the complex was bought by the Capuchins, who renovated it and rededicated the church in 1872 with the current title; Due to the decline in the number of brothers, they had to close the monastery for good in 2012.

Willem Vandenameele