The church is connected to the Monastery of Saint Bernardo which occupies the eastern end of the tufaceous spur on which the inhabited center of Nepi stands. In the 15th century a church dedicated to San Pancrazio was intended to be built on the site. Subsequently, the building passed to host the Confraternity of Madonna dell’Immagine.

Works began around the year 1560 and ended in 1616. The foundation of the monastery dates back, however, to 1618, with the arrival of Cistercian nuns from the important monastery of Saint Susanna in Rome.

The cloistered monastic community remained active until the beginning of the 21th century, when the last religious returned to their main monastery in Rome.

The church of San Bernardo was built with a single hall, two altars for each side and a chapel with a vaulted ceiling. The ceiling is coffered.

One of the altars on the left hosts the heavily reworked fresco of the ** Madonna of the Image** also called Madonna dei Somarari. This fresco originally must have belonged to the church of Madonna dell’Immagine demolished in 1542.