Chiostro Maggiore di San Francesco, Medieval cloister in Ascoli Piceno, Italy

The Chiostro Maggiore di San Francesco is a medieval cloister in Ascoli Piceno featuring twenty Gothic round arches supported by Corinthian columns. An octagonal well sits at the center and anchors the space.

Construction started in 1565 through a bequest from nobleman Giulio Antonio Santucci and finished in 1623. A Gothic portico from the 14th century was originally sealed but opened in the 1930s to create street access.

The cloister carries names and plaques honoring two popes who once studied within this Franciscan complex. These connections reveal how important this place was to the religious community.

The cloister transforms into a vegetable market for locals most mornings, except on Sundays and holidays. Plan a visit early in the day when the market is in full swing and you can see how the space is actually used.

The oval plaque under the portico, on the side of the church's left nave, quotes the Annals of Luca Wadding: it records that Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pope and an Ascoli native, and Sixtus V both came from this convent and did their early studies in its Studium. The 14th-century well at the centre has rectangular panels framed by twisted Gothic colonnettes, motifs close to those of the central portal of San Francesco's facade.