San Francesco, building in Popoli, Italy

San Francesco stands on Piazza della Libertà in Popoli Terme, its stone-block facade reached by a staircase of eight steps flanked by two Romanesque lions. The lower section holds a round-arched Romanesque portal with twisted columns and a late-Gothic rose window whose four circles carry the Evangelists in relief around the Cantelmo lion. A narrower Baroque upper storey, linked by side volutes, rises above.

The church was first documented in 1334 as a Franciscan property in the territory and initially stood outside the walls of Popoli. After an earthquake in 1688, the facade was rebuilt in baroque style between 1688 and 1689, and the bell tower received its distinctive onion dome in 1714.

The name comes from the Franciscan order, documented here since 1334. In the Chapel of Saint Francis, to the left of the altar, a glazed terracotta altarpiece was made by Francesco Antonio Saverio Grue of Castelli, with a painting of the Incoronation attributed to a pupil of Sassoferrato. The Cantelmo family, lords of Popoli, are buried in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, marked by their coat of arms on the iron gate.

The church faces Piazza della Libertà, and the former convent is reached from a corner of the square along via Repubblica, between via Pillo and piazzale della Pietà. An eight-step staircase with two Romanesque lions leads to the portal. Only a side wing of the convent survives, with a porticoed cloister and well.

The rose window is described as unique in late Gothic Abruzzo architecture: a rayed wheel with four small circles forming a square, each bearing one of the Four Evangelists in relief, and the Cantelmo lion rampant at the centre. Its dividing frames reuse Corinthian-style plant and egg motifs.