EX CHIESA DI SAN FRANCESCO

The Chiesa di San Francesco, built on an already existing building of the same name, and the Convent both host the Museo civico di Cuneo (Civic Museum of Cuneo) and are one of those rare architectural testimonies of the Dark Ages in Cuneo. The plan of the church has three naves with rectangular apses. The dominant style is the Gothic that replaces the Romanesque style present in the earlier construction. 12 chapels open onto the right of the naves and 10 to their left. During the Franco-Spanish siege of 1744, the church was transformed into a hospital and the Franciscan convent into a stable. The situation worsened during the French Revolution when Napoleon dissolved the religious order, confiscating its assets. The second lengthy period of decline reduces the complex of San Francesco into a military deposit. It wasn’t until 1928 that there is a first indication of a restoration of the façade, and in 1970, the church and the convent are returned to their former glory with the settlement (among others) of the Civic Museum in the rooms of the convent. In the church, the vaulting of the Cappella Vitali is entirely covered with decorations in plaster dating back to the 17th century, attributed to the Rusca family, active in the Savoia court.