THE CHIESA DI SAN FRANCESCO (CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS), Via San Francesco - Treviso
In Treviso the Chiesa di San Francesco (Church of St. Francis) was built from 1230 to 1270 near the Walls;
it rose for the Pope Innocenzo III’s will and thanks to donations of municipality and of Trevisan aristocracy.
The church was raised when the Romanesque was ending and the Ghotic
was growing, the features of this period are very evident and we may find in some architectonic components: the
Romanesque components (the arches of the transepts and entrance main door) mix with those Ghotic (the arches
of background chapels and the windows).
Indoor the Church of St. Francis shows the stern style of other
Romanesque - Ghotic churches in Treviso. The ceiling is made by coffered timber and the floor is made by fired
bricks. The church is made by bricks inside and outside, it has a Latin-cross plan. In 1797 the French army
took command of Venice and then after few days the same fate concerned Treviso also.
The same fate concerned St. Francis complex also, it
lost its religious function; the monastery was demolished and it was robbed of its cloisters and a house was
built with the bricks of two cloisters. The church floor was removed and the indoor space was divided in other
floors to optimize it and to use it as storehouse. Other damages were done to Church of St. Francis unluckily
either under the Austrian rule or when Italy was unified wholly.
In the end of the 1920s the use purpose of
the church got back to be the original for this building and it was given Friars Minor Conventual, after a
substantial restoration.
Among the most interesting works it is possible to admire
the "Madonna e i Santi" by Tomaso da Modena (1360) while the paintings by Alvise Vivarini, Paris Bordone and
V. Carpaccio (which were there once) then they were taken away.
Indoor the church, on South side there is Francesca
Petrarca’s grave, she is the Poet’s daughter and she died in Treviso in 1384.