Going through the main entrance, the visit starts by climbing a large staircase designed in 1772 by Gaetano Cantoni, which once allowed direct access from the wards of the Ospedale di Pammatone to the upper chapel of the church. The staircase gathers a collection of altarpieces which came to the Museum after the closure of a number of Capuchin monasteries across Liguria.
On the staircase:
- Capuchin craftsmanship (Mid-18th c.), Capuchin Altar.
- Orazio De Ferrari (First half of 17th c.), Immacolata coi Santi Antonio e Francesco (The Virgin with Saints Anthony and Francis).
- Domenico Fiasella (Second half of 17th c.), Madonna con Bambino, San Francesco e San Carlo Borromeo (Madonna with Child, St Francis and St Carlo Borromeo).
- Unknown Genoese sculptor (Second half of 17th c.), Statua bifronte con Madonna e Bambino e Sant’Antonio e Bambino (double-sided statue with Madonna and Child and St Anthony and Child).
- Lorenzo da Cortona (Cortona 1596–Rome 1669), Daniele nella fossa dei leoni (Daniel in the Lion’s Den).
- Simone Balli (First half of 17th c.), Immacolata con San Francesco e San Bonaventura (The Virgin with St Francis and St Bonaventura).
- Pietro Francesco Guala (Casale Monferrato 1698–Milan 1757), Martirio e gloria di San Fedele da Sigmaringen (Martyrdom and Glory of St Fidelis of Sigmaringen).
- Giovanni Lorenzo Bertolotto (Genoa 1646-Genoa 1720), Mosè fa scaturire l’acqua dalla fonte (Moses Bringing Forth Water from the Rock).
- Anton Maria Piola (Second half of 17th c.), Madonna con i Santi Evangelisti, Maddalena e i simboli della Passione (The Madonna with the Evangelist Saints, Magdalene and the Symbols of the Passion).
- Giovanni Lorenzo Bertolotto (Genoa 1646-Genoa 1720), Ritrovamento di Mosè (The Finding of Moses).
- Paolo Gerolamo Piola and Domenico Piola (End of 17th c.), Novità della Vergine coi Santi Gerolamo, Francesco, Giovanni Battista e Antonio Abate (The Virgin Appears to Saints Jerome, Francis, John the Baptist and Anthony the Great).
- Giovanni Battista Paggi (1610/15), Santi Francesco d’Assisi consacra Santa Chiara (St Francis of Assisi Consecrates St Clare).
- Roman Sculpture (190-200 A.D.), Sarcophagus.
The large chapel was decorated in chiaroscuro along the walls and on the vault by Michele Canzio and Girolamo Curti, known as il Dentone: Francesco Baratta is the author of the Virtues and of the friezes depicting “St Catherine as hospital rector”, “Catherine with the Disciples of the Divino Amore”, “The plague of 1400 and the perfumer monks”, and “Catherine aiding the sick”.
In the presbytery, the tondo on the vault representing “St Catherine in glory”, the paintings on the wall with “La Visione e il Miracolo di Santa Caterina” (The Vision and The Miracle of St Catherine), and the corbels with symbolic figures were frescoed in 1822 by Santo Tagliafichi. On the far wall, the painting of “Jesus appearing to St Catherine” comes from the workshop of Domenico Piola. The stuccoes and ceiling coffers decoration are the work of G. Picco.
In the gallery there is an organ from 1885 by the Varese firm Bernasconi.
The chapel also houses works from the permanent collection of artists such as Lorenzo Fassolo, Giuseppe Palmieri, Giovanni Battista Paggi, Bernardo Strozzi, Simon Vouet, Gio Lorenzo Bertolotto and others, on display on rotation.