Ex Chiesa di San Francesco, Romanesque church in San Gimignano, Italy.

The ex Chiesa di San Francesco on Via San Giovanni preserves only the first order of its facade, built in the second decade of the 13th century. A blind gallery of five round arches rests on slender travertine columns with carved capitals; two human heads flank the portal, and a Maltese cross is carved in the lunette. Two horizontal bands of gabbro run across the wall.

Founded in the early 13th century as a Jerusalemite hospital dedicated to Saint John, it is documented from 1221, when a priest Johannes hospitalis S. Johannis is named. In 1553 it was assigned to the Franciscans, who changed its dedication; the convent was suppressed in 1782 and the church sold in 1787 to a certain Salvatorelli, who demolished it except for the facade.

The Maltese cross carved in relief on the monolithic lunette recalls the Jerusalemite hospital order that ran the site from the 13th century. The travertine capitals flanking the portal carry two human heads among vegetal motifs, and the right impost shows a ram's head. The facade's five-arch blind gallery uses the same paired discs joined by a shell at the column bases as Pisa Cathedral.

Only the facade remains, preserved up to the first order, so there is no interior to visit; the blind gallery of five round-arched bays and the portal are best examined from Via San Giovanni. Look at the capitals flanking the portal, where two human heads replace the usual foliage, and at the eight-pointed Maltese cross carved in the lunette. The wall is light travertine with two horizontal bands of gabbro running behind the arcades.

The travertine facade is the only surviving part of the church, demolished in 1787 by its new owner Salvatorelli. Its blind gallery of five arches rests on slender columns, and two capitals beside the portal carry carved human heads instead of leaves. The lunette holds a relief Maltese cross.