San Francesco is a church in Lodi, Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, dating to the late 13th century. Its main peculiarity are the two "open sky" double mullioned windows in the façade, which are the first example of a model often repeated in northern Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries.

History

The church was built between 1280 and the early 14th century, on the site a small church of the Minor Friars dedicated to St. Nicholas. The construction was commissioned by the Lodi bishop Bongiovanni Fissiraga.

In 1527 it was assigned to the Reformed Franciscan Order of St. Bernardino, who, in 1840, where replaced by the Barnabites

Barnabites

The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic order.-Establishment of the Order :It was founded in 1530 by three Italian noblemen: St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli, abbr. B.) is a Roman Catholic...

. In the first years of their tenure, they carried on a wide restoration program, which was completed in 1842.

Overview

The church has an unfinished façade in cream-color brickwork

Brickwork

Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...

, charactersized by a tall ogival cusped portico, also in brickwork. This is flanked by two blind columns and surmounted by a large rose window

Rose window

A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...

 in white marble, in turn sided by two double ogival mullioned windows.

The wide interior is on the Latin cross plan, divided into a nave and two aisles with four spans each; there are also side chapels. The nave and the aisles are cross-vaulted, separated by ogival arches supported by large brickwork columns. Walls and columns are decorated by numerous frescoes dating from the 14th to the 18th century; among the many 14th century ones, particularly renowned are the Madonna with Child, Saints and Donor from an unknown Lombar master. In the right aisles are 16th-century frescoes depicting Madonna with St. Francis, St. Bonaventure and a Donor by the local painter Sebastiano Galeotti, a collaborator of Callisto Piazza

Callisto Piazza

Callisto Piazza was an Italian painter.-Biography:Callisto, a member of the Piazza family of painters, was born in Lodi, Lombardy....

.

16th and 17th century paintings include a Saint Anthong meeting Ezzelino III da Romano

Ezzelino III da Romano

Ezzelino III da Romano was an Italian feudal lord in the March of Treviso who was a close ally of the emperor Frederick II and ruled Verona, Vicenza and Padua for almost two decades...

by Malosso, St. Francis Receiving the stigmata by Sollecito Arisi and a Madonna of Caravaggio by Enea Salmeggia

Enea Salmeggia

Enea Salmeggia was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance period, active mainly in his native city of Bergamo....

.

The church house the sepultures of several notable people, such as the poet Ada Negri

Ada Negri

Ada Negri was an Italian poet and writer.-Biography:She was born in Lodi into an artisan family to Giuseppe Negri and his wife Vittoria Cornalba. She attended Lodi’s Normal School for Girls and earned an elementary teacher’s diploma...

 and the naturalist Agostino Bassi

Agostino Bassi

Agostino Bassi, sometimes called de Lodi, was an Italian entomologist. He preceded Louis Pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease...

.