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The Convent of San Benedetto was built in 1605 by the will of Bishop Giacomo Aldobrandini, to accommodate the Benedictine sisters. Inside are worthy of note the Crypt that houses the high altar, the Baroque balustrade that once characterized the main entrance of the Cathedral and a large canvas called Our Lady of the Rosary Flemish school; The cloister instead houses a pavement in opus spicatum found on the occasion of some excavations for the construction of a palace. The rooms of the former convent offer very interesting details, such as the doors carved walnut in baroque style that allow the entrance to the church of Addolorata (formerly the Church of San Benedetto).
Here the MED - Diocesan Ecclesiastical Museum - found a real treasure chest of works of art. The exhibition of the museum develops along seven rooms and there are papier-mache sculptures of the Neapolitan school, liturgical vestments, stone finds of the medieval period, sculptures and architectural elements of the sixteenth-eighteenth century.A special mention should be made of some of the canvases exhibited and dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as "The Annunciation", "The Rest of the Holy Family" of 1737, "The Immaculate Conception" by Francesco Solimena, "The Holy Family" of which the artist is uncertain, Giacinto Diano or Corrado Giaquinto. Among the most interesting works there is a capital of the Frederick era, riveted during the restoration of the bell tower of the Cathedral, which proposes, finely carved, 4 faces with the somatic characteristics of the ethnic groups known in Europe in the twelfth century; a wooden statue of Our Lady enthroned with Jesus child in her womb, called Our Lady, attributed to Giovanni da Casalbore and a canvas depicting "Saint John of God" by Luca Giordano.
