Chiesa di San Francesco

Udine's Franciscan church, consecrated in 1266, is now a civic exhibition venue. Its walls preserve important fourteenth-century frescoes, including a large Lignum vitae depicting the crucified Christ within a tree of life.

Why it matters

The church is the oldest surviving reminder of the Franciscan settlement in Udine. Its painted walls preserve religious imagery from the order's first century in the city. Although the building was deconsecrated and now serves as a civic exhibition space, its display panels are arranged to leave the medieval frescoes visible.

What to notice

The Lignum vitae occupies the right wall of the central apse: a tree with fan-shaped branches surrounding the crucified Christ, an image associated with Franciscan devotion and Bonaventure's meditation treatise. Other surviving paintings include the Annunciation and Saint Christopher on the triumphal arch, evangelists on the choir vault, and a cycle of scenes from the life and travels of Beato Odorico da Pordenone. Odorico's marble tomb, carved by Filippo de Sanctis in 1332, is now in the church of the Carmine.

Context and history

The Franciscan church was consecrated by Patriarch Gregorio di Montelongo in 1266. Following the 1511 earthquake, renovations altered the building; in 1833 a transverse wall shortened the nave, and the interior acquired Baroque features. Allied bombing in 1945 destroyed those later structures but left the medieval fresco layers. The city chose not to rebuild the Baroque work, restoring the church to a form closer to its medieval appearance. The Odorico panels, detached from a lost chapel, were restored after the bombing and again in the early 2000s. The deconsecrated church now belongs to the civic museum system.