San Francesco, Medieval church in historic centre of Grosseto, Italy

San Francesco is a brick church in central Grosseto featuring Romanesque and Gothic architectural elements. The building stands out with a large rose window above the main entrance and an attached cloister that is part of the monastic complex.

The Franciscans are first documented in Grosseto on 6 December 1233, when a deed in the Siena State Archives records land in the contrada fratrum minorum. They settled at the former Benedictine monastery of San Fortunato, and a 17th-century inscription states that Pope Nicholas IV ordered in 1289 that the church be dedicated to Saint Francis. Donations for the fabrica ecclesiae came from Count Ildebrandino Aldobrandeschi in 1284 and from citizens in 1295 and 1319.

The district around the church was already called contrada fratrum minorum in a 1233 deed, and a 1300 document names it contrada Sancti Francisci, so the area took its name from the friars. The church was also a burial place for local families: the magistrate Domenico di Matteo Angeli (d. 1477) and the apothecary Gherardo Giovannetti (d. 1504) were interred here.

The church stands on Piazza San Francesco, with the cloister and its 16th-century Pozzo della Bufala entered along the left flank; a second well for rainwater faces the right side and bell tower. The façade is travertine up to the portal lintel, brick above. The 1926 bell tower by Lorenzo Porciatti rises at the rear right.

In the cloister stands the 16th-century Pozzo della Bufala, flanked by two travertine columns carrying a carved crown, with a rainwater cistern beneath. A second well on the square by the bell tower collected rain to supply the neighbourhood's houses.