San Francesco Church, Gothic church in Lodi, Italy

San Francesco Church is a Gothic building in Lodi featuring pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and detailed facades made from local brick and marble. The interior is organized with columns supporting the ceiling and creating distinct areas that lead toward the main altar.

The church was built between 1280 and the early 14th century on the site of a smaller church of the Minor Friars dedicated to St. Nicholas. Bishop Bongiovanni Fissiraga promoted the project, supported by donations from the noble Antonio Fissiraga. In 1527 the building passed to the Reformed Franciscans of St. Bernardino, and in 1840 to the Barnabites, who restored the complex by 1842.

The church holds the tombs of writer Ada Negri, librettist Francesco De Lemene and naturalist Agostino Bassi, a pioneer of modern bacteriology. In a niche near the Crucifix chapel is kept the head of Blessed Michele Carcano. The third chapel on the right, dedicated to St Bernardino, was carved out in 1477 from an earlier fortified tower.

The church still belongs to the parish of Lodi Cathedral, which has always held its ownership, and is listed among Italy's national monuments. Visitors enter from the unfinished brick façade with its open-sky double windows; the interior is a Latin cross of three naves and four spans, with side chapels. Look for the Fissiraga chapel and the third chapel on the right, dedicated to San Bernardino and carved in 1477 from an earlier fortified tower.

The two pointed double-mullioned windows on the façade open directly to the sky, since the façade was never completed. They are considered the earliest example of a model later repeated across northern Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries. The third chapel on the right, dedicated to St Bernardino, was carved out in 1477 from an earlier fortified tower.