A Jacobite Gazetteer - Modena
Former Convento di San Paolo |
In 1816 Princess Mary Beatrice (later Queen Mary III and II) founded a school for poor girls in the former convent attached to the Chiesa di San Paolo; the girls were known as the "Putte della Duchessa". 1 At the far end of the entrance hall on the ground floor of the convent is a terracotta memorial to Queen Mary erected in 1842 (two years after her death). At the top of the memorial is a sculpture of a mother with her three children flanked on either side by a cornucopia. Below a blue and white frieze of acanthus leaves is a round tondo which surrounds a slight recess containing a bust of Queen Mary. She is dressed as a Roman matron and holds a book (symbolic of education). On either side of the tondo is a blue and white panel decorated with arabesques. Below the bust of Queen Mary is an Italian inscription: |
This page is maintained by Noel S. McFerran (noel.mcferran@rogers.com) and was last updated July 17, 2005. |