Church and convent of San Francesco

Iglesias, Sardinia · Franciscan foundation of the 14th century, church rebuilt in the 16th · Catalan Gothic

Church and Convent of San Francesco

A Franciscan church of red trachyte in the old town of Iglesias, one of the most intact Catalan Gothic buildings in Sardinia, beside the surviving fragments of its cloister.

At a glance

San Francesco stands in the medieval centre of Iglesias, in south-western Sardinia. The church and the remains of its convent are among the most valuable traces left on the island by the Friars Minor Conventual. The restored cloister is now the seat of the town’s Pro Loco.

History

The Franciscans reached Iglesias in the early fourteenth century, by concession of Pope John XXII and with the backing of King James II of Aragon. The present church is a sixteenth-century rebuilding of the earlier one. A capital and the holy-water stoup carry the year 1558.

After the Savoy state suppressed the religious orders, a royal decree closed the church in 1899 and handed it to the town. It served as a barracks and a bakery and came close to demolition in 1914. Worship resumed in 1928, and the friars returned in 1935.

What you see

The facade is a plain wall of red trachyte, broken only by a rose window above the portal and two small round windows. Inside, pointed diaphragm arches divide the single nave into bays under an exposed timber roof. Seven raised chapels open on each side. The square presbytery, raised above the nave, closes under a star vault with a hanging boss. Its main treasure is a polyptych of about 1560, attributed to the Cagliari painter Antioco Mainas.

Of the cloister, only the perimeter walls and part of a portico beside a tower remain. It was used as an air-raid shelter in the 1940s.

Key facts

Order: Friars Minor Conventual, in Iglesias since the early 14th century
Church: 16th-century rebuilding in Catalan Gothic style; dated inscription 1558
Plan: single nave with pointed diaphragm arches, seven chapels on each side, star-vaulted presbytery
Artwork: polyptych of about 1560 attributed to Antioco Mainas
Cloister: 14th-century fragments with round arches in pink trachyte, restored
Address: Piazza San Francesco 1, 09016 Iglesias (SU), Italy; the cloister is on Via Crispi
GPS: 39.312219, 8.532118 · Open in Google Maps

Practical information

San Francesco is a working church. The cloister can be visited with the Iglesias Old Town Tour ticket, or with a combined ticket that includes the Civic Museums. During Monumenti Aperti 2025 the church was opened with guided tours by the Associazione Amici di San Francesco. Hours change: check with the Iglesias tourist office before visiting.

Getting there

The church lies in the south-western part of the historic centre, near Piazza Municipio. On foot it is reached from Via Satta and Via Don Minzoni.

Sources

Sardegna Cultura, Iglesias, Chiesa di San Francesco
Sardegna Turismo, San Francesco, Iglesias
Iglesias Turismo, Church of San Francesco and Cloister of San Francesco
Pro Loco Iglesias, Chiostro di San Francesco
FAI, I Luoghi del Cuore, Convento di San Francesco
Monumenti Aperti 2025, Chiesa di San Francesco
Wikipedia (it), Chiesa di San Francesco (Iglesias)

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Travel tips from CHO

Go on the first Sunday of the month

State museums, archaeological parks and monuments across Italy open free of charge on the first Sunday of every month. It covers state-run sites only — civic and private museums set their own prices — and there is nothing to claim: you simply walk in.

The ministry’s free days →

In September, the doors that are usually shut open

For one long weekend every September, some fifty European countries run the European Heritage Days together: palaces, workshops, archives and private houses that are closed the rest of the year let visitors in, almost always for nothing. Italy sets its own dates, and they are published a few weeks ahead.

Dates, country by country →

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