Church of San Francesco (Cortona)

Church interior

The Church of San Francesco is a church that is located on via Berrettini in Cortona.

Built in 1245, the church adopts the typical Franciscan pattern: A large room which concludes with an apse forming a groin vault sided by two smaller chapels also utilizing a groin vault.

The facade retains a lancet arched main door, with three small columns in a recess, and a large circular window setting placed above. In the apse are the profiles of the partially walled Gothic windows. On the left, the eastern wing of the cloister is visible, where there are two windows, now walled, and an arched door, on the Chapter House.

Inside, are the Nativity of Raffaello Vanni, the Annunciation by Pietro da Cortona, St. Anthony of Padua and the miracle of the Cigoli mula, and the Virgin in glory among the saints of Ciro Ferri. In the Convent of the Conventual Franciscan Friars(guardians of the church), are the carefully preserved relics of St Francis of Assisi, which are a habit, a finely embroidered cushion, donated by Settesoli Giacoma de Santo (noble lady of patrician Marino, who loved to call Francis Iacopo), where the dying poor man laid his head, as well as a Gospel.

Also in the church, is a preserved fragment of the Holy Cross brought from Constantinople to Cortona by Friar Elia Coppi, the one that st francesco named as his mother and a father for the other brothers, the successor to the leadership of the Conventual Franciscan Friars. P. Eugen Rachiteanu guided the church and the convent together with two other monks from the Conventual Franciscan Province of Romania.

External links

• Tourism in Cortona