Monastery of St. Francis in Zagreb, Franciscan monastery in Gornji Grad-Medveščak, Croatia

The Monastery of St. Francis on Kaptol consists of the church of St. Francis of Assisi, oriented east–west on the north side, and three two-storey wings closing a square courtyard to the south, linked to the church by corridors. The fourth side, along the church, forms a terrace above the open windows of the south wall. Its 17th-century refectory has a high barrel vault with lunettes and a Last Supper fresco on the east wall.

According to tradition, St. Francis sent Friar Grgur and Friar Ortols to Zagreb in 1226, and the widow Katarina Galović gave them land where the monastery and church were later built. The friars most likely settled before the Mongol invasion of 1242, on the site of an abandoned Benedictine monastery. In the 16th century the complex was badly damaged in the conflict between Ferdinand of Habsburg and Ivan Zapolja and abandoned around 1560; the provincial Franjo Drašković brought the friars back and restored the church in the early 17th century. In 1900 it became the seat of the Croatian Franciscan Province of St. Cyril and Methodius.

The friars run the Croatian Franciscan Province of St. Cyril and Methodius from here, and the house holds a seminary and theology school. Since the 1960s the community has published the newspaper Glas koncila, and the editorial office of the magazine Brat Franjo and its publishing house also works in the monastery.

The site is not always open to visitors, so it helps to check ahead or come during services. The location in Gornji Grad is walkable from the city center and sits in a quieter residential area above downtown.

The refectory, now also the chapter hall, is one of Croatia's most monumental Baroque interiors, built in the 17th century with a high barrel vault on transverse ribs. Its walls carry paintings of Franciscan saints, notable guardians and provincials, and a fresco of the Last Supper on the east wall.