Former Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi – Florence
The building known as the former convent of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi has a complex history, as it was founded as a shelter for questionable women: it was founded around 1250 under the Benedictin rule to accommodate the “Converts” or “Penitents” nuns of Santa Maria Maddalena. In the following century, the convent passed to the Cistercians friars, who rebuilt the complex and commissioned the decoration works to Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Lorenzo Di Credi, Perugino and many other artists. The masterpieces are no longer preserved in the former convent, with the only exception of the fresco realized by Perugino, still on site. The Carmelites of Santa Maria degli Angeli then came to live in the convent, bringing with them the relics of the noble St. Mary Magdalene of the Pazzi family, who lived between the five and the seventeenth centuries: therefore, the structure owes its name to the presence of these relics.
In 1866 the convent was suppressed and its structure divided into two parts, interspersed with Via della Colonna; today, the church and the surviving rooms are managed by the Assumptionists.
