Basilique Saint-François, Franciscan church in Monserrat, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Basilica and Convent of San Francisco de Asís stands at Alsina 380 in Monserrat, sharing an atrium with the Chapel of San Roque and the Third Order of Saint Francis. Its Bavarian Baroque facade, remodeled by Ernesto Sackmann between 1907 and 1911, is crowned by Antonio Voegele's 1910 group: Saint Francis flanked by Dante, Giotto and a kneeling Columbus. Inside, above the main altar, hangs Horacio Butler's 8-by-12-metre tapestry The Glorification of Saint Francis, installed after the 1955 fire.

The Franciscans received this plot in 1583 and built a first church of adobe with palm and tile roofs. The present temple was begun around 1731 on plans by Jesuit architect Andrés Blanqui with friar Vicente Muñoz, inaugurated in 1754, closed around 1770 for a large crack and consecrated in 1783. Its towers fell in 1807; Tomás Toribio's neoclassical facade was finished by 1815, and Ernesto Sackmann gave it the Bavarian Baroque look between 1907 and 1911.

The facade group carved by Antonio Voegele in 1910 shows Saint Francis flanked by Dante, Giotto and a kneeling Christopher Columbus, because all three were members of the Franciscan orders. The convent library, destroyed by fire in 1955, had been used by Mariano Moreno and Bartolomé Mitre. Since 1963 a tapestry by Horacio Butler, La glorificación de San Francisco, hangs over the main altar.

The church stands at Alsina 380 and shares its atrium with the Chapel of San Roque and the Third Order of Saint Francis; the three form the San Francisco Monumental Complex. The convent, long closed, now admits visitors. Look for the four Carrara marble sculptures on the square in front, carved by a French sculptor: Astronomy, Navigation, Geography and Industry.

In 2007, workers discovered a sealed container inside a statue that held historical objects from the early 1900s. The find also included a handwritten letter from the sculptor who had created the statue.