CHIESA DI SAN FRANCESCO
Church that became a military depot with valuable paintings and sculptures.
The construction of the church of San Francesco, with its annexed convent, dates back to the 13th century (between 1230 and 1270). It was enlarged in 1255 and was soon chosen as the pantheon of the most illustrious Trevisan families (the Rinaldi, Buonaparte, Rover, Sugana and Da Camino). It was restored several times, following the damage suffered in particular after the French invasion in 1797. During Napoleon's time, when the religious orders were suppressed, the convent and its cloisters were demolished and the church of S. Francesco became a military depot; it was during this period that the valuable paintings and sculptures that adorned this place of worship were lost, either removed or taken away; the destruction of the works of art (all masterpieces) and their dispersal were almost total.
It was not until 1928, after a thorough restoration, that the church was given back to Franciscan worship and conventuals. The monument clearly shows the transition from Romanesque to Gothic: the entrance portal and the arches of the transept are still Romanesque, while the slender windows and the arches of the chapels are already Gothic. Austere and solemn in its Franciscan simplicity, it has a single nave, a wooden ceiling with a ship's hull, a transept and five parallel polygonal apsidal chapels. Five other chapels, open on the side wall on the right, were connected to each other after the demolition of the party walls, and form a small and suggestive side nave.
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