Franciscan Church, Lucerne, Catholic church building in Lucerne, Switzerland

The Franciscan Church, dedicated to St. Mary in der Au, stands on Franziskanerplatz in the southern part of Lucerne's old town. Its front section is the original monastery church, a choir with a cross-ribbed vault and keystones bearing church figures, closed by a high altar of 18th-century stucco marble. The richly carved late-Renaissance choir stalls are by Kaspar Tüfel and Hans Ulrich Räber.

Construction of the church and convent began in 1269, on land linked to Gepa von Wolhusen and the monastery of Murbach; the Franciscans, founded in 1210, held the house until 1838. After the Swiss victory at Sempach, captured banners were kept here, and their decayed originals were replaced by the painted copies still visible below the windows of the nave.

The church was long known as the Barfüsserkirche, and the parish office still calls the site "Im Barfüsser"; the Barfüsserbrunnen of 1546 stands on Franziskanerplatz. Inside, the pulpit of 1628 by Niklaus Geisler of Schweinfurt rests on a kneeling angel. The south side opens onto a green square, once the outer cloister and cemetery, with a 1924 copy of the 1652 Marienbrunnen.

The church stands on Franziskanerplatz in the southern part of Lucerne's old town, on the left bank of the Reuss. On the south side, a green space with a 1924 copy of the 1652 Marienbrunnen adjoins the building; this area was once the outer cloister and cemetery of the monastery. The former east wing of the monastery, south of the parish church, survives as the parish house.

The church floor was raised by about a work-foot in the late 16th century because of damp, and bodies were later covered with lime; gravediggers complained seven years on that the corpses would not decay, and the cemetery was finally closed in 1798.