The Convent of St. Francis (Spanish: San Francisco) is a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

located in the city centre of

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the '' Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality wh ...

(Spain), overlooking the Plaza de la Herrería. The Gothic church of San Francis is attached to the convent on the southeast side.

History

According to tradition, the convent was founded by Francis of Assisi, who stopped in Pontevedra when he was on the Portuguese Way to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

. The arrival of the Franciscan order in the city may have taken place in the last third of the 13th century, the building being constructed between 1310 and 1360, with the economic help of the heirs of Paio Gomez Charino. The convent was built on the site of a former Templar house and church on land belonging to the Soutomaior noble family, next to the walls of Pontevedra, taking advantage of several old towers, one of which has medieval remains, possibly dating from the 11th century.Saavedra, Segundo, 2011, Un corto viaje a Rías Bajas, Madrid, Anaya Touring, p. 42 At that time it was still outside the city walls. The opulence of this construction was the envy of the members of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

settled in the city, who had completed their church ten years earlier, and who in 1380 decided to start the construction of another church larger than the Franciscan one, with five apses. In 1362, the construction of the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

of the church of the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

, similar to that of St. Francis, but smaller in size, was begun in the city. In addition to these three buildings, the parish church of St Bartholomew the Elder was enlarged between 1337 and 1339. This great building boom was due to the large number of financial donations from wealthy families, fearing death from the Black Death that haunted Europe at that time. An extension paid for by Archbishop Malvar at the end of the 18th century replaced the convent's medieval cloister and erected the church tower. After the

Spanish confiscation The Spanish confiscation was the Spanish government's seizure and sale of property, including from the Catholic Church, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. It was a long historical, economic, and social process beginning with ...

of Mendizábal in 1835, the convent remained unoccupied as it belonged to the municipality from that moment on. After this exclaustration in 1835, it was the Venerable Third Order that kept the church open for worship. The convent became the residence of the civil governor and the seat of the political government. Between 1836 and 1890, it also housed the offices of the Provincial Council until it was moved to the current Provincial Palace. When, in 1840, Pontevedra was besieged and invaded by troops from Vigo with the aim of removing its status as provincial capital, the inhabitants of Pontevedra defended themselves from the convent of St. Francis,. In 1853, the steps leading to the church were built. In 1885, an attempt was made to install a tobacco factory in the building, but the municipality's request was rejected. In 1891 the convent became the headquarters of the state Treasury Department. At the beginning of the 20th century, the municipal fire station was housed in an outbuilding with a façade at the back of the convent. In 1900, the architect Arturo Calvo Tomelén carried out a series of works on the chevet of the church, during which the windows of the apse and the rose window of the transept were brought to light. On 15 January 1909, Father Luis María Fernández Espinosa and five other friars returned to the premises, with a twenty-five-year lease for 250 pesetas per year. In 1930, the temple was ceded by the Royal Order and from 1932 the convent became the exclusive use of the Ministry of Finance. On the night of 17 June 1995, the temple burned down and was restored shortly afterwards. The restored church reopened on 5 October 1996. The convent housed the Provincial Treasury until 2010, when it was moved to the Campolongo district.

Description

The church of St. Francis

The church is in the late Gothic or ogival style and was declared a historical and artistic monument in 1896. It corresponds to the model of the mendicant churches and has a Latin cross plan, with a single

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a wood-covered crossing and a chevet with three polygonal apses, covered with ribbed vaults. The central nave, 100 metres long and 10 metres wide, is the highest of all the Franciscan churches in Galicia. Inside the church are the

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

of Paio Gomez Charino, Juan Feijóo de Soutomaior and Pelayo de Montenegro. The church has several chapels dedicated to: the Sorrows or Annunciation (1590) on the Epistle side, the Good Success or Sacred Heart (1670), the Third Order, the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

and Mercy (1677), St. Anthony, St. Elizabeth or the Visitation. At the entrance to the church, on the Epistle side, there is a mural, from around 1500, depicting the Mass of St Gregory. On the outside, the main façade has a

pointed arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown, whose two curving sides meet at a relatively sharp angle at the top of the arch. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earlie ...

and moulded

Archivolt An archivolt (or voussure) is an ornamental moulding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental mouldings (or other architectural elements) surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the ...

s.Aganzo, Carlos, 2010, Pontevedra. Ciudades con encanto, Madrid, El País-Aguilar, p. 44-50.Riveiro Tobío, Elvira, 2008, Descubrir Pontevedra, Pontevedra, Edicións do Cumio, p. 19-21 The Stained glass windows in the church have a deeply

iconographic programme: in the main chapel, the themes of Christ and Mary are represented in the centre with the images of the Ecce homo and

our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

. To their right are St. Matthew, St. John, St. Peter and St. Francis, and to the left St. Anthony of Padua,

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

, St. Mark and St. Luke. Thus, the central position of Jesus and Mary is completed and highlighted on each side by two saints of the Franciscan Order, Francis and Anthony of Padua, then by the apostles,

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, and at the ends, on each side, two by two, by the four Evangelists. Sartegochariño

The convent

The convent was rebuilt in the 18th century in the Baroque style. The construction was completed in 1800. When the walls of Pontevedra were demolished, the ''St. Dominic's Gate'' or ''City Gate'' was incorporated into its façade, at the main entrance. It is a sober building of large dimensions with three floors and a stone plinth. The lintelled doors and windows are plain. Above the central window of the balcony on the façade, above a small pediment, there is a Pontevedra stone coat of arms. The convent has a rectangular plan with a cloister on the south-east side and two courtyards of different sizes on the north-west side. The exterior has many elongated, symmetrical windows, with balconies on the main façade and a large balcony above the entrance door. Access to the church is through a door in the left wing of the transept. The building is 100 metres long, 30 metres wide and 24 metres high.

Culture

The convent is currently occupied by four Franciscan friars. The convent is home to the community kitchen St. Francis, which feeds a number of needy people from Monday to Saturday. The church was chosen centuries ago as a burial place by some of the main noble families of Pontevedra, such as the Sarmiento and Mariño de Lobeira families.Aganzo, Carlos, 2010, Pontevedra. Ciudades con encanto, Madrid, El País-Aguilar, p. 44-50

Gallery

File:Pontevedra 72-07a, antiga Delegación de Facenda.jpg, Convent main façade File:Iglesia de San Francisco - Nave Central (Pontevedra).jpg, Central nave of the church File:Convento de San Francisco Pontevedra 2.jpg, Convent File:Igrexa de Pontevedra Galicia.jpg, Church File:Pontevedra 04.jpg, Apse of the church File:Pontevedra San Francisco ánimas.jpg, Souls in

Purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...

File:Pontevedra - panoramio (13).jpg, Rear of the convent File:Iglesia de San Francisco - Vidrieras Altar Mayor (Pontevedra).jpg, Stained glass windows of the high altar

History

Description

The church of St. Francis

The convent

Culture

Gallery

References

See also

Bibliography

Related articles

External links