Église Saint-François, Catholic church in Saronno, Italy.

The church of San Francesco in Saronno has three naves over six bays, twelve side chapels and a deep semicircular apse; the fourth bay, with the chapels of Saint Anthony and the Immaculate Conception, is the widest. The central nave has a coffered wooden ceiling, the side bays cross vaults and the presbytery a masonry barrel vault. The 17th-century facade is framed by two pilasters with Ionic capitals linked by a lily garland; statues of Saint Francis and Saint Anthony, carved in 1774 and replaced in 2004, stand in the niches.

A church dedicated to Saint Peter is first documented on this site in 1154; it was rebuilt in 1297 with an adjoining convent, probably founded through the preaching of Anthony of Padua around 1230. In 1570 Charles Borromeo moved the parish seat to the church of Saints Peter and Paul and gave the old church to Saint Francis. The convent was suppressed under Napoleon in 1797, and the church became a national monument in 1931.

The name changed in 1570, when Carlo Borromeo moved the parish to the church of Saints Peter and Paul and gave this building to the Franciscans as San Francesco. The side chapels belonged to Saronno families, whose coats of arms (Reina, Lucini, Zerbi, Bossi, Rossi, Visconti) remain on the vaults. In 1850 Angelo Ramazzotti founded the PIME missionary institute here.

The church stands on Piazza San Francesco, with the former Franciscan convent beside it on the south-west, now a private residence whose main door opens onto the square. The quadrangular bell tower flanks the east side. The Roman altar is set outside the apse on Via Carcano, so walk round the building rather than stopping at the facade.

Outside the building rests a Roman altar from the early centuries of our era, bearing the carved name of an ancient merchant. This artifact links the site's early Roman past with its later religious purpose.