Church Santa Paola, Gothic church in Mantua, Italy.

Church Santa Paola is a Gothic structure in Mantua featuring pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and detailed stonework typical of this architectural style. The interior provides a solemn space for worship, with vertical lines and carved details throughout that guide the eye upward.

The church and its adjoining monastery, dedicated to the Body of Christ, were built in the early 15th century at the wish of Paola Malatesta, wife of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, to house Franciscan Poor Clares. The ducal architect Luca Fancelli completed the cloister in 1460. Between the late 18th century and the late 1950s the complex served as a barracks and a factory.

The church is named after Paola Malatesta, wife of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, who founded it in the early 15th century for the Poor Clares. Inside are the tombs of Gonzaga family members, including Isabella d'Este and Francesco II Gonzaga, whose remains were found in 1965 but later disappeared from the sarcophagus.

The church stands on Piazza dei Mille in central Mantua, not far from the Gonzaga palaces. The former monastery beside it now houses the Istituti Santa Paola, a vocational training school founded in the 1960s by don Antonio Bottoglia. The square is reached on foot through the historic centre.

The church holds the tomb of Isabella d'Este and her husband Francesco II Gonzaga, buried in Franciscan habit. Their remains, lost for centuries, were found in 1965 by don Costante Berselli and professor Ercolano Marani, then sealed in two numbered fir crates; Isabella's was crate number two. The crates later vanished from the sarcophagus.