Convento di San Francesco

The Convento di San Francesco is a monastery arranged in an L-shape around a cloister, its three sides formed by two wings and the church, the fourth by fragmentary remains. On the ground floor, a portico runs beneath sail vaults, its arches supported by pilasters with lesenes and, in the central bays, half-round columns carrying a Doric frieze. Above, a second order of lesenes and columns frames rectangular windows with curved pediments, lighting the cells. The wing parallel to the church extends into the piazza; behind the portico, a wide barrel-vaulted hall distributes smaller rooms with pavilion and barrel vaults. A three-flight staircase leads to the upper floor of this wing, where a long corridor, lit by oval openings high in the wall, gives onto cells and further rooms. The external façades facing the new town show two rows of rectangular windows and oval openings in the stairwell and corridor. A large cistern stands at the cloister’s centre. The perimeter walls are of tufa and stone, partly plastered.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.