The church can be found in the Stampace neighbourhood and stands at the top of a flight of steps which carry on and lead to the Santa Croce Stronghold.
The original layout dates to the XIII-XIV centuries; indeed, the church replaced the chapel dedicated to Santa Margherita, which included the convent next door. A community of the Poor Clares lived here right up until the end of the XIX century.
The church of Santa Chiara is in Baroque style from the XVII century. Two quadrangular lights and portal with architrave in the same shape open out onto the plain facade, with double inflection end point known as “curve-shaped pediment”.
Opening out onto the barrel-vaulted hall are two side chapels and rectangular apse with seventeenth-century high altar, the work of Nicola Caso from Campania. The altar is produced in gold-coloured, carved wood arranged into three orders and transoms with the Renaissance wooden simulacrum of the Madonna di Loreto, dating from the XVI century; while in the attic are canvases depicting San Francesco in gloria, Sant’Agostino and Sant’Ignazio di Loyola.
