Following the construction of the Church in the place of the apparition of the Virgin where the painting depicting the Annunciation was venerated, the great flow of pilgrims increased to such an extent that in 1474 the decision was taken to build a monastery to be entrusted to the Congregation of the Hermitage of St. Augustine. The convent, the work of Martino da Lugano, with the collaboration of “masters from Como”, has a Renaissance layout and has two cloisters made up of round arches supported by sandstone columns. The first rectangular cloister has 22 round arches in sandstone, supported by sandstone columns in the Lombard style, with capitals and bases of two different designs.
The second cloister has 26 arches like the previous ones, supported by sandstone columns with capitals and bases of various styles. One of the two cloisters has a side adjacent to the Church although the construction is not contemporary.

The original entrance to the Convent was towards the mountain passing outside behind the apse of the church where a stretch of the Via Francigena is still today; later, with the suppression of religious orders in the Napoleonic era, a new entrance was opened on the side of the provincial road.

Inside the former convent is the State Archive of Massa Carrara Section of Pontremoli in which countless documents are kept: among all we remember the registers of the municipal council after the fire that burned Pontremoli in 1495.