Articles

The church, the earliest example in Italy of French Gothic style, was built in the 13th century on behalf of the Franciscan community installed here in 1218 with Bernardo di Quintavalle, one of the first disciples of St Francis. Today's building is a pastiche of different styles, ranging from Romanesque to late Gothic and early Renaissance. Particularly noteworthy are the high Romanesque-Gothic façade, the apse with its two bell towers and the rampant arches of the radial chapels, surrounded by the 13th-century mausoleums of the first university professors Accursio, Odofredo and Rolandino de' Romanzi. Inside, the austere and grandiose setting of the church is dominated by the magnificent marble altarpiece of the high altar, sculpted between 1388 and 1393 by the Venetians Jacobello and Pier Paolo dalle Masegne. Also worth highlighting are several sepulchral monuments along the walls, including the tomb of Pope Alexander V and the Romanesque Muzzarelli Chapel, as well as the 14th-15th century cloisters of the adjoining monastery. The complex is also home to several collateral institutions, such as the Library of St Francis with 39,000 volumes and pamphlets, the Rubbiani Archive, the Historical Archive of the Bolognese Province of Friars Minor Conventual and the Music Archive.