Santa Croce a Montecitorio is a deconsecrated former convent church is at Via degli Uffici del Vicario 30 in the rione Colonna, opposite the south-west corner of the Camera di Deputati.
The dedication was to the Holy Cross.
History
Edit
The convent was founded in 1300 for Franciscan Tertiary nuns, and was originally located near the Antonine Column. However, the convent later divided and the original site became an enclosed convent of Poor Clares while those who remained tertiaries moved to this site.
Pope Pius V restored the little monastery with the help of nuns from Perugia (Le Perugine) just before his death in 1572, and the two branches of the original convent were reunited.
The church is on record as being tiny.
The monastery was suppressed in 1673, and the nuns transferred to San Bernardino da Siena ai Monti. They seem to have been replaced for a time by a community of women disciples of St Philip Neri, the Filippine, but these later founded the convent of San Filippo Neri all'Esquilino.
The Nolli map of 1748 does not show anything here. However, the building on the site contains remains of the original convent including the church.
