| Building Name: | Chiesa di San Francesco |
| Map Size: | 200px |
| Location: | Chioggia, Venice, Italy |
| Coordinates: | 45.218°N 12.2778°W |
| Religious Affiliation: | Catholic |
| Region: | Veneto |
| State: | Italy |
| Province: | Venice |
| Territory: | Chioggia |
| Patron: | Francis of Assisi |
| Groundbreaking: | 1385 |
The Chiesa di San Francesco, ("The Church of San Francesco") in Chioggia is a religious building that overlooks on the main square of the city, is a Catholic church located in Chioggia, in the province of Venice, Veneto, Italy.
This church is also called San Francesco "old" or "inside the walls" to distinguish it from the other church of San Francesco, the current Civic Museum, located 350meters further south, beyond the Porta Di Santa Maria, the last remnant of the ancient citywalls to the south.[1]
The first informations of the Franciscan presence in the city dates back to the mid-1200s, theconvent community as it grew, sought new spaces by building the new convent outside thewalls at the beginning of the 1300s; unfortunately the works were interrupted during the War of Chioggia. Subsequently, the works remained unfinished due to the interdiction of theVenetian Senate, which forbade the construction of any construction outside the city walls.The religious community therefore remained in the old convent, expanding its spaces.Things changed around the 1430s when the ban on construction ceased and theconstruction of the new convent began again and the transfer took place over the followingdecades.[2]
On 10 October 1512, the convent became a monastery with the arrival of the CistercianSisters, coming in part from the ancient city monastery of Santa Caterina. The population ofnuns, who followed the rule of enclosure, grew until it reached about fifty units in themid-eighteenth century.[3]
An interesting anecdote has it that the playwright Carlo Goldoni, who lived opposite thechurch during the years of his work in Chioggia, established a close relationship with thenuns, so much so that he created a series of sonnets and speeches for them which theyrewarded with various sweet delicacies.[4]
In 1805, at the behest of the Austrian government, the nuns of San Francesco together withthose of Santa Croce had to move to the Convent of Santa Caterina to free up buildings tobe used as barracks.[5]
The church built in 1385 housed the main altar to the east with the entrance from the northwith sober furnishings in full Franciscan style.
Important alterations come from 1743 by Domenico Cestari from Chioggia, who embellishedthe temple in rococo style.[6]
The place of worship has always been open or semi-open to the public and today it is underthe jurisdiction of the Cathedral of Chioggia and inside it during the winter the weekdaymasses are celebrated instead of the cathedral and always only in the winter there is dailyEucharistic adoration.[7]
The 14m high facade was adorned with Istrian stone statues of St. Francis in the center ofthe tympanum, St. Anthony of Padua on the left and St. Bonaventureon the right. Behind thebell tower along the north side wall of the church a corridor was built in 1612 which connectsthe monastery to the bell tower.[8]
The 19-metre high bell tower can be dated to around the first decade of the 1600s, the baserecalls the advanced Gothic style with its pointed arch, while the dome dates back to 1743.Four bells are housed in the belfry.[9]
On the floor there are several tombstones dating from the 1600s and 1700s, the mostnoteworthy are the central one with the Cestari family crest and the one to the right of thealtar of the Immaculate Conception where Pasquale Grassi, bishop of Chioggia between1618 and 1636, could not be buried in the cathedral because it was undergoingreconstruction.[10]
The interior of the church, with a rectangular plan, measures 10 meters in width, 32 in lengthand 13.70 in height. It has several altars, arranged in an anti-clockwise direction as follows:
The vaulted ceiling are adorned with stuccoes by Giacomo Gaspari and paintings byMichele Schiavoni depicting the life of San Francesco and San Benedetto.Above the side entrance there is an eighteenth-century canvas depicting St. Francis inecstasy, from the now abandoned church of Our Lady of the Stigmata.[11] [12]