INTEGRATED
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The Vittoria Colonna high school is housed in a building that was transformed from the former Monastery of Santa Margherita, founded in the early 1300s for Franciscan tertiary nuns. The monastery is notably depicted in the fresco cycle "The Stories of the True Cross" in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. On the left wall of the Bacci Chapel, Piero della Francesca illustrates the discovery of the crosses of Jesus and the thieves by Queen Helena, with a background view of fields and hills dominated by the city of Jerusalem, which includes a portrayal of the village of Arezzo. This painting provides evidence that, in the mid-fifteenth century, the Monastery of Santa Margherita was a significant religious centre. It also confirms that the original structure corresponds to today's Vittoria Colonna high school, the oldest and most monumental building in the city of Arezzo. The building was largely destroyed by bombings in January 1944, although the cloister and the former church miraculously remained intact. Reconstruction efforts began immediately after the war and were completed in 1948, utilising the old foundations of the complex, which historical documentation indicates were among the few elements to survive the wartime destruction. The recent project focused on enhancing the energy efficiency and seismic resilience of the entire building complex.