Chiesa di San Francesco

St. Francis's Church is the most important church in Chieti from the history, art and architecture point of view, after the adjacent St. Justin's Cathedral. The first works were made under the pressure of the noble Antonio Gizzi. In the fourteenth century it was erected the brick facade that today remains original only at the top. At the end of the sixteenth century, they began the works designed to give the final appearance of the complex, with the transformation into a nave with only deep chapels on each side. In 1620 it was then completed the refectory of the adjacent convent. The early eighteenth century it must nonetheless be the beginning of the Baroque renovation of the structure, which will be done externally only in the lower half of the facade, but that will make the interior of the church the most magnificent of the entire city. It is a basilica Church with a nave, transept plant, quadrangular apse and five deep chapels on each side, to which must be added the two formed in the transept, above which opens the dome. To the state where it is today, the facade is clearly the result of an unfinished renovation: Medieval rose window stone pierced and decorated, while the large window above is clearly a later addition. The high altar, above the apse is monumental in size and consists of dark slabs of precious marble.