
The cloister of the Poor Clares, currently belonging to the Friars Minor, is found near the church and the choir of Santa Chiara in Naples. The cloister is very large with 17 arches and the arches of the portico dating to the fourteenth century are preserved from the original structure. These arches open out from pilasters with octagonal bases and are decorated with majolica illustrating festoons of fruit and flowers on a blue background. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Domenico Antonio Vaccaio planned the rich and precious garden decorations, placed in the middle of the Gothic ambulatory, entrusting its execution, by means of this stupendous majolica work to Giuseppe and Donato Massa. Restored twice in the twentieth century, the garden is raised above the level of the portico by means of a low wall, also decorated with majolica tiles. Two perpendicular paths, flanked by benches covered in decorated tiles, cross the wide space delimited by the pilasters and adorned by two octagonal fountains. The Clare's cloister is open during the winter, from 8.30 to 12.30 and from 15.30 to sunset; during the summer instead from 8.30 to 12.30 and from 15.30 to 18.30. The Franciscan cloister of the old convent that still has its medieval structure, should be pointed out, together with the Maria Cristina room, with its fourteenth-century frescoes now detached from the walls, and the Museum of the Works of St. Clare, that contains works and materials aimed at describing the history of the convent, and its rooms that were built over the ruins, recently unearthed, of a thermal building from the imperial Roman period (first and second century AD). The museum is open every day, except Wednesday and Sunday afternoon, from 9.30 to 13.00 and from 15.30 to 17.00.