Chiesa di San Francesco

Built for the Friars Minor between 1278 and 1363 at Ubertino Landi’s behest, San Francesco combines Piacenza’s Lombard Gothic architecture with a prominent place in the city’s Risorgimento history. Its marble portal is associated with the Solari workshop; in 1848 the result of the plebiscite for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia was proclaimed here.

Why it matters

The church’s terracotta façade, rose window and gabled brick masses are characteristic of Piacenza’s interpretation of Lombard Gothic, with Cistercian and Burgundian influences also noted in the architectural tradition. Its political history is equally significant: the 1848 plebiscite result was proclaimed here, and Carlo Alberto granted Piacenza the title of “Primogenita.”

What to notice

Two buttresses divide the façade into three sections crowned by pinnacles. A large splayed rose window sits between two smaller oculi above a band of hanging arches. The late-Gothic marble portal was commissioned from Guiniforte Solari in 1454 and completed by another hand; its lunette carries a relief of Saint Francis. Inside, three naves are supported by massive pillars beneath cross vaults and ogival arches. Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century tombs and fresco fragments remain. The Immaculate Conception chapel contains an altarpiece by Giovanni Battista Trotti, known as il Malosso, and a seventeenth-century Lamentation over the Dead Christ. A surviving portico marks the former Franciscan cloister.

Context and history

The Landi family gave the Friars Minor houses on this site in 1278. The church and convent developed over the following century, with the monastery eventually occupying the square beside the church. Suppressed in 1797, the complex was used as a hospital and warehouse. Worship returned in 1806 under the dedication of San Napoleone; in 1818 Bishop Scribani Rossi made the building a parish church and restored its original title. Restorations from 1842 preceded the church’s role in the Risorgimento. In 1940 a portal rescued from the demolished church of Sant’Andrea was installed on the north side. Most of the convent was demolished around the 1940s, leaving the porticoed wing.