San Francesco all'Immacolata, Franciscan church in Messina, Italy

San Francesco all'Immacolata is a Gothic church in Messina featuring a single nave with pointed arches lining both sides. The interior is defined by a wooden ceiling decorated with traditional motifs that runs the full length of the space.

The church was founded in 1254 under the blessing of Pope Alexander IV as the first Franciscan temple in Sicily. This establishment came just decades after Saint Francis's death, making it an early expression of the Franciscan movement in the region.

The church is known as a royal chapel: in 1535 Charles V declared it Magna Domus Messanensis, head of the Franciscan province. On 2 August 1655 the viceroy of Sicily summoned the island's bishops here to swear the kingdom under the guidance of the Immaculate Virgin. A bronze statue of Saint Francis by Antonio Bonfiglio stands in the small square since 1965.

The church stands on viale Boccetta, and its surviving apses with their merlons and buttresses face the street. The 1908 earthquake left that rear section standing while the rest collapsed, so the portals and rose window you see were recovered from the rubble and reset during the 1920s rebuilding. The bronze statue of Saint Francis in the small square dates from 1965.

Frederick IV of Sicily, not Frederick III, was buried here in 1377, along with his mother Elisabeth of Carinthia and the dukes of Randazzo William and John of Aragon. In 1554 their remains were gathered into a single sarcophagus behind the high altar carved with the Rape of Proserpina. Frederick IV survived an assassination attempt at the church door on 13 October 1370.