Chiesa di San Francesco

One of the oldest churches in Orvieto, situated in the place where they settled, when they arrived, the Franciscan friars. It was probably founded in 1240. The appearance was that of the typical Franciscan church with single nave, apse and quadrangular roof wooden trusses. It was modified in the second half of the sixteenth century, when the noble families of the city participated in the renovation of its interior, rebuilt in Baroque style, with stucco decorations and two sets of communicating chapels on both sides. The facade is the original fourteenth-century, with three portals with pointed arches, of which, the central one has a shell made of local stone with white and red. Remake of the late eighteenth century, in addition to the decorative stucco, the furniture and the wooden marquetry by Alessandro Tosi (1794). On the main altar there is a wooden crucifix of the fourteenth century, by Master Sottile. Inside they are buried many famous characters: Orazio Benincasa, first captain of the fortress of Perugia, Lattanzio Lattanzi, bishop of Pistoia and the architect author of the modifications, Ippolito Scalza. The only surviving fresco by Pietro di Puccio, dating from the second half of the fourteenth century, depicting three moments in the St. Matthew's life.