Church of San Francesco

"A beautiful church built in the Romanesque-Gothic style. Impressive both outside and inside. Her history is extremely interesting. In the early years of the thirteenth century the municipality of Treviso issued statutes that allowed the mendicant orders to settle inside the walls. A small group of Friars Minor, sent by Francis of Assisi himself, thus arrived in Treviso in 1216, and took up their headquarters in the north-east of the city center, in the area beyond the Cagnan Grande. In this area, which according to tradition was assigned to them by the powerful Da Camino family, the Franciscans built a simple monastery and a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The community soon became numerous and in 1231 the church and convent began to be built. In 1270 the buildings were completed. An important role in the endowment of the convent was played by Gherardo da Camino, an Italian leader and feudal lord. He is commonly considered the main exponent of the da Camino family. Being a church of regulars, in 1797 the church was occupied by the French and the conventual minor friars were expelled. In 1806 the convent was suppressed by the laws of the Kingdom of Italy. The church was thus used for military purposes and as a stable, while the two large cloisters were demolished. Only in 1928, after a restoration, was it reopened. The interior of the church is extremely beautiful in simplicity and is full of significant works by great masters of painting. On the left wall, there is a gigantic fresco depicting St. Christopher, a Romanesque-Byzantine work of the late thirteenth century. On the sails of the vault of the main chapel of the apse are the Four Evangelists, the Stigmata of St. Francis, a Madonna with Child and Adam, from the fourteenth-century Venetian-Emilian school, probably the work of a pupil of Tommaso da Modena. In the first chapel on the left (Giacomelli chapel) there is a work by Tommaso da Modena, the fresco of the Madonna with Child and seven saints (1350), a true artistic masterpiece of the church and testimony of the refined Gothic style of the Emilian master then active in city. In the second chapel on the left there is a fresco by the Maestro di Feltro, Madonna and four saints from 1351. The church houses the tombs of some famous people: Pietro Alighieri and Francesca Petrarca the most important. The first, son of Dante Alighieri, was a judge, poet and commentator residing in Verona who died in Treviso during a stay in 1364. The second, daughter of Francesco Petrarca, died in childbirth in 1384. From the church comes masterpice the „Sacred Conversation“ (1480) by Alvise Vivarini, and the „Meeting of Joachim and Anna with St. Louis IX and Santa Libera“ by Carpaccio today in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice."

Asiyah Noemi Koso

"Beautiful place, you can spend a time in quiet paradise court."

David Cígler

"A must see in Treviso.
Here you can see the tomb of Petrarch's daughter."

Alex D