San Francesco is a church in Lodi, Lombardy, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, dating to the late 13th century. Its main peculiarity are the two "open sky" double

mullioned window A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

s 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, were replaced by the

Barnabites The Barnabites ( la, Barnabitum), officially named as the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul ( la, Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli), are a religious order of clerics regular founded in 1530 in the Catholic Church. They are associated with the Angelic ...

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

Description

The church has an unfinished façade in cream-color

brickwork Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

, 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 is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window ...

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 Antonio Fissiraga'' from an unknown Lombard master.Péter Bokody, "Secularization and Realistic Turn in Italy: Antonio Fissiraga's Funerary Monument in Lodi," IKON: Journal of Iconographic Studies 5 (2012): 351-363. https://www.academia.edu/1796258/Secularization_and_Realistic_Turn_in_Italy_Antonio_Fissiragas_Funerary_Monument_in_Lodi 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. Among the 16th- and 17th-century paintings are included a ''Saint Anthony meeting

Ezzelino III da Romano Ezzelino III da Romano (25 April 1194, Tombolo7 October 1259) was an Italian feudal lord, a member of the Ezzelino family, in the March of Treviso (in modern Veneto). He was a close ally of the emperor Frederick II ( r. 1220–1250), and rule ...

'' by

il Malosso Giovanni Battista Trotti (1555 – 11 June 1612) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance period, active mainly in Piacenza, Parma, and his native city of Cremona. In Cremona, he was initially a pupil of Bernardino Campi, whose niece h ...

, ''St. Francis Receiving the stigmata'' by Sollecito Arisi and a ''Madonna of Caravaggio'' by

Enea Salmeggia Enea Salmeggia (c. 1556 – 23 February 1626) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance period, active mainly in his native city of Bergamo. Biography He was also known as ''Il Talpino''. He trained with members of the Campi family, and la ...

. The church contains the tombs of several notable people, including the poet

Ada Negri Ada Negri (3 February 187011 January 1945) was an Italian poet and writer. She was the only woman to be admitted to the Academy of Italy. Biography Ada Negri was born in Lodi, Italy, into a humble family: her father was Giuseppe Negri, a coa ...

and the naturalist

Agostino Bassi Agostino Bassi, sometimes called de Lodi (25 September 1773 – 8 February 1856), was an Italian entomologist. He preceded Louis Pasteur in the discovery that microorganisms can be the cause of disease (the germ theory of disease). He discovered ...

Notes

References

* {{Authority control 13th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Francis, Lodi Romanesque architecture in Lombardy Gothic architecture in Lombardy