Saint Francis Xavier church, Baroque church in Trento, Italy

Saint Francis Xavier Church is a Baroque building in Trento with rich interior decoration throughout. The walls and ceiling display frescoes, while several ornate altars and detailed artwork fill the interior space.

The Jesuits settled in Trento in 1625 with permission from Bishop Carlo Gaudenzio Madruzzo, and in 1648 obtained the riverside plot with Palazzo da Povo and Casa delle Costede. They first officiated in rooms of Palazzo da Povo, then demolished it: the first stone was laid on 10 October 1708 and the church was inaugurated on 19 April 1711. After the order's suppression in 1773 it stood abandoned until the French used it as an arms depot.

The church is still administered together with Santa Maria Maggiore, and two wooden confessionals were moved here from that church. The entrance ceiling fresco by Carlo Gaudenzio Mignocchi shows the Nativity, flanked by the Baptism of Jesus and the Baptism of Constantine. The name comes from the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, whose figure stands on the entrance gable.

The church stands on Via Roma, in the historic centre of Trento, and is administered together with the nearby church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The entrance is through a narthex separated from the single nave by a railing; the two side doors there lead to vestibules beneath the bell tower. The organ loft and the matronei are on the first level, the clerestory windows on the second.

The church held the remains of Francis II, the last king of the Two Sicilies, from 1917 to 1923. At the request of Empress Zita of Austria, they were moved here from Arco to protect them from the nearby World War I front. The organ, built in 1888 by the Mayer brothers, keeps its original mechanical action, 18 registers on two manuals and pedal.