Church of San Francesco, Gothic church in Cortona, Italy.

San Francesco is a Gothic church in Cortona featuring a large main nave that ends in an apse with vaulted ceiling. The interior is complemented by two smaller side chapels built with comparable vault structures.

Begun in 1246 on land given by the Commune of Cortona to Fra Elia, who was probably its designer, the church was already in use by 1254 but consecrated only in 1374, as a plaque on the facade records. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries it was updated in a Counter-Reformation spirit with new side altars.

The dedication of the side altars records local families and patrons: Domenico Rotani, standard-bearer of the Medici army, founded the second altar in 1643, and Margherita Venuti founded another in 1625 for her husband Niccolò Baldelli. The altarpiece by Francesco Rustici shows Margherita da Cortona, the patron's namesake, beside Saint Nicholas of Bari, namesake of the dead husband.

The church sits along Via Berrettini, making it easy to visit while walking through the city center. Dress modestly when entering, and be prepared for cool temperatures inside.

Behind the main altar, up a flight of stairs, stands a 10th-century reliquary of ivory and silver holding a fragment of the Holy Cross. Emperor John III of Nicaea gave it to Fra Elia in 1244; Elia had brought the fragment from Constantinople to Cortona.