Chiesa di San Francesco, Baroque church in Mazara del Vallo, Italy.

The Chiesa di San Francesco in Mazara del Vallo has a plastered Baroque facade framed by tall pilasters, with the 1730 portal by Leonardo Incrivaglia set in the southwest front. Two columns on high plinths support a volute tympanum with a marble medallion, above which a relief shows Saint Francis receiving the stigmata beneath a niche holding the Immaculate Conception. The interior is a single nave with a barrel vault, stucco statues of the virtues in niches, and frescoes by Giovanni Battista Scannatella.

A basilica dedicated to San Biagio was built in 1093 by Count Roger I of Altavilla in Arab-Norman style, with three naves and twelve altars. In 1216 Blessed Angelo Tancredi da Rieti founded a Franciscan convent beside it. In 1680 Monsignor Francesco Maria Grifeo had the side naves demolished and the central nave raised with a barrel vault; the church reopened in 1703.

The single nave holds a stucco cycle attributed to the workshop of the Orlando family, with allegories of the cardinal and theological virtues as full-round female figures set in niches alternating with the altar arches. The fresco cycle is by Giovanni Battista Scannatella, and busts of Franciscan martyr saints line the cornice among rows of putti. The counter-facade has a wooden choir gallery under an arch decorated with stucco music-making angels.

The church sits in Piazza San Francesco in central Mazara del Vallo and is easy to reach on foot. Underground chambers lie beneath the building and can be visited during standard opening hours.

The crypt beneath the church is dated to 250 AD, when it served as a burial place and prayer space for the first Christians, who also used it as a refuge from persecution; the complex is known as the catacombs. The Saracen walls around the site are documented from 827.