San Francesco, Ferrara

San Francesco is a late-Renaissance, Roman Catholic minor basilica church located on via Terranuova in Ferrara, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

A small Franciscan order church and monastery was erected by 1232 at the site; but soon work began on a larger church. In 1341-1344, the present layout with a Gothic design is attributed to the masters Armanno, Taddeo and Falconetto da Fontana. Chapels were added over the next centuries.

During the Erculean Addition patronized by Ercole I d'Este, the church was reconstructed in a Renaissance-style by the architect Biagio Rossetti. In 1570, an earthquake razed the roof and collapsed part of the facade, and led to its present reconstruction. To the left of the brick facade were the Oratories of San Sebastiano and della Concezione. In 1864, the altarpieces depicting the Madonna del Pilastro and Child with St. Jerome, the Baptist, St. Anthony of Padua, another Saint, and Lodovica Trotti and the Resurrection of Lazarus (1532), both by Benvenuto Tisi (Garofalo) were moved to the civic museum. In 1957, Pope Pius XII elevated the church designation to a Minor Basilica. The earthquake of 2012 caused closure of the basilica.

In the past century, much of its artwork was moved to the Ferrara Pinacothek, and replaced by copies. Among the remaining works is the fresco of the Capture of Christ (1524) by Garofalo in the first chapel on left. The church still has the baroque cenotaph of marchese Ghiron Francesco Villa, a Ferrarese condottieri who lead armies circa 1668 for Venice in the ill-fated defense of Candia against Ottoman armies. The memorial has a statue of the Marchese by Emanuel Tesauro and bas-reliefs depicting his feats as a general.

A guide to the city from 1773 chronicles the rich patrimony of San Francesco prior to the Napoleonic suppression.

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