Chiesa di San Francesco

Just outside Sarzana's old walls stands the Franciscan church of San Francesco, beside the former convent. Tradition gives the foundation to Francis himself on a visit to the town; the first document dates to 1238, and the present church, built from the late thirteenth to early fourteenth century, contains a marble funerary monument of 1327-1328 and Baroque canvases inside its single aisle.

Why it matters

Local tradition holds that Francis founded the house during a visit to Sarzana, as recorded by the city portal. The first document attesting a fraternity of friars above the borgo dates to 1238; the larger convent and present church were built from the late thirteenth century into the early fourteenth. In 1462 the Friars Minor Observant took over from the Conventuals; a dormitory and cloister were added in the fifteenth century. The convent has since been deconsecrated and its rooms now house the offices of Sarzana's tribunal, an unusual sequel that leaves the church as the sole sacred space of the original compound.

What to notice

Architectural features include:

• The gabled facade in two unlike orders, its lower zone fully clad in marble; the medieval portal was destroyed and only traces of column bases remain, while a seventeenth-eighteenth-century lunette shows the Virgin and Child between St Francis and St Louis of Toulouse.
• The marble architrave figure of St Bernardine of Siena wrapped in the Franciscan cord, the emblem of the Observant friars installed in 1462.
• A Latin and German inscription above the cloister door recalls the 1577 foundation of a cemetery for German mercenaries in Genoese service; a relief sits above it.
• Inside, the single nave with three tall pointed windows a side, the very short transept with side chapels, and the Baroque barrel vault that replaced the old open trusses, alongside the marble funerary monument of Guarnerio degli Antelminelli, dated 1327–1328.

Context and history

The church stands on Piazza Dino Ricchetti, just beyond the walls. Its long axis runs parallel to the street, an orientation shared in Sarzana only with the Oratory of Santa Croce. The portal's catalogue identifies a large Adoration of the Magi of 1656 over the entrance, attributed to Genoese painter Tommaso Clerici. Further seventeenth-century canvases line the altars. The church remains a parish and cultural site; the former convent now houses Sarzana's tribunal offices.