Complesso Monumentale di San Francesco

The San Francesco complex in Este preserves the buildings of a Franciscan foundation beside the Bisatto canal. Church, cloister and the Oratory of the Battuti record a long history of religious patronage and later civic use.

Why it matters

The Friars Minor established the convent in the thirteenth century. The Este family supported the church and used it as a burial place. Its history therefore connects the religious community with the local branch of a dynasty prominent in northern Italian politics.

What to notice

The large square cloister provides a central architectural feature of the complex. Seventeenth-century rebuilding and later adaptations altered the medieval foundation. The surviving Battuti oratory represents another strand of religious association within the same group of buildings.

Context and history

A funerary monument commissioned by Borso d'Este commemorated Taddeo and Bertoldo d'Este, although the monument was later lost. Following suppression, the complex served military, judicial and educational purposes. In 1834 the Battuti oratory housed Este's first public lapidary collection, an early stage in the history of the National Atestino Museum.