The church and the Dominican convent of Saint Catherine in Fianlborgo were founded in 1359 by order of the local noble family, the marquises Del Carretto, that chose it to be their final resting place. The convent complex rose close to the western walls of the town of Finale on the margin of the medieval town.

Since its foundation the convent was entrusted to the Dominicans, a religious mendicant order that was founded in 1206 by the Spaniard Domenico Guzman.

The medieval church presented its apse facing the town while the façade coincided with the walls of the town. The church had two Finale stone portals to access inside that opened on the side facing the square and are now still used as accesses to the auditorium.

The main portal, arched with columns with decorated capitals, was denominated “the woman’s portal” while the minor portal, with a fresco depicting the Virgin in its bezel, was denominated “of the men”.

Inside, the medieval church was originally divided into three naves by two rows of Finale stone columns with capitals while in the apse the presbytery was flanked by two lateral chapels aligned on the back wall. In the chapel on the right of the high altar, known as the chapel of Saint Mary of the Oliveri, an important cycle of frescos is preserved with the “Stories of Mary and Jesus” painted at the end of the 14^th century by at least two artists, probably from the Tuscan school.

At the end of the 15^th century, due to the action of the marquis’ family and of Carlo Doemico Del Carretto, who became cardinal of Finale in 1505, two wide cloisters were constructed, a perfect example of renaissance architecture of Lombard derivation, around which the various rooms of the convent were built. On the first floor the dormitory of the monks was served by long corridors on which the doors opened to cells decorated with frescos that can still be seen in the Archaeological Museum of Finale.

After the Napoleonic period and the return of the power of the Savoia, in 1826 a radical transformation was decided for the medieval church and the construction of a new building of cult with a single hall with the demolition of part of the medieval columns and the apse being moved towards the walls. The new church didn’t live long: indeed, in 1864 the convent was suppressed and the entire complex was turned into a prison. The rich heritage of paintings and marbles of the Dominican church, linked to the devotion of the Del Carretto family and of the main Finale families, after the suppression of the religious orders in the 1800s, ended up in the parish of San Biagio in Finalborgo and in various museums in Liguria and abroad.

The medieval bell tower, whose original steeple fell during the 1887 earthquake, was recently rebuilt in corten steel and the narrow and dark prison cells were restored and now can be visited from the museum.

Starting from the 1970s the restoration of the convent spaces brought to the creation of one of the most significant cultural centres of western Liguria, including the auditorium in the ex-church, the Archaeological museum of Finale, the public library and, in the wing on the square close to the walls, the exhibition area known as the “Oratorio dei Disciplinanti”.