Convento e Chiesa di San Francesco

The Franciscan Convent and Church of San Francesco in Cittadella dates to around 1481 and remains a spiritual centre of the town. Its two-sided cloister portico surrounds a plain bell tower, while the convent rooms above contain sail vaults. The adjacent single-nave church holds paintings by Venetian artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Why it matters

The complex has served as a Franciscan house since Cittadella’s Venetian period. Its church contains three altars, frescoes and the wall tombs of local families, preserving a record of the town’s religious and civic life.

What to notice

The cloister portico is arranged on two sides around the bell tower. Sail vaults distinguish the rooms above. In the church, the altarpieces, frescoes and family tombs reflect its long use as a place of worship and burial. The collection includes a Venetian painting of the Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and Anthony of Padua.

Context and history

The Franciscan convent was built around 1481, after Cittadella came under Venetian rule in 1406. Its church and convent have remained part of the town’s spiritual life. A 1927 photographic record documents a fresco, “Luigi di Francia e San Francesco,” discovered in a wall of a small room in the former convent.