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Chiesa di San Francesco

Chiesa di San Francesco

Modena, IT

The church of San Francesco is an Emilian Gothic church, built from 1244. On 5 June 1501, a very violent earthquake seriously damaged the church and the bell tower, which were rebuilt from 1535. The bell tower was completely rebuilt in its present style. In the 18th century, further work was carried out on the monastic complex, but in 1774 the Duke of Modena decided to reduce the number of parishes so that the monks had to leave the monastery, while the church was entrusted to the management of the parish of San Giorgio, which was then abolished in 1798 by Napoleon Bonaparte. The church reopened for the first time in 1829, after a restoration begun in 1926, and again in 1901, after restorations in the 1880s in the neo-Gothic style.

Chiesa di San Francesco

Chiesa di San Francesco

Rapallo, IT

The church of San Francesco d'Assisi dates from 1519. The convent, adjacent to the church, was restored and given to the Friars Minor in 1601 by order of Pope Clement VIII. The interior, consisting of four naves divided by two-coloured octagonal pillars, preserves the 17th-century painting of the first altar in the right nave.

Chiesa di San Francesco

Chiesa di San Francesco

Rieti, IT

After the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, the church of San Francesco is the second oldest church dedicated to the cult of St. Francis. In addition to the church, the complex includes a convent and a small oratory dedicated to St Bernardino. During his visit to Rieti in 1210, Francis of Assisi built a small oratory for the care of the sick, located next to the existing hospital of Santa Croce. The saint's followers gathered around this oratory, which gradually grew over the years, giving rise to the first settlement of the conventual Franciscan Friars Minor in the town. After the death and canonisation of Francis, the Franciscan community of Rieti acquired a church, which was authorised by a papal bull promulgated in 1245 by Pope Innocent IV. The construction of the building began in the same year and was completed in 1253. The convent was closed during the Napoleonic era, definitively abolished in 1866 and given to the municipality of Rieti in 1873.

Chiesa di San Frediano

Chiesa di San Frediano

Firenze, IT

The church of San Frediano in Cestello was built on the site of the mid-15th century church of the "monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli". The church was rebuilt between 1680 and 1689 by architect Gherardo Silvani, who died in 1675. In 1680, the project was modified by Giulio Cerruti, who turned the axis of the church, placing the entrance towards the Arno. In 1783, the church was transformed into a parish church and the monastery was abolished.

Chiesa di San Gaetano

Chiesa di San Gaetano

Barletta, IT

The church of San Gaetano was founded in the 17th century by the Theatine order, which arrived in Barletta in the early years of the century. When the Theatine order was suppressed by the royal decree of Murat on 7 September 1809, the church came under the jurisdiction of the parish priest of the church of San Giacomo, who in turn entrusted it to the Brothers of the Holy Trinity. The friars brought with them the precious relic of the Holy Thorn, of which they had become the guardians and which they were responsible for solemnising on Passion Sunday. The building was granted to the municipality and used for public offices.

Chiesa di San Giacomo de Spada

Chiesa di San Giacomo de Spada

Alcamo, IT

The ancient church of San Giacomo de Spada was a church built from 1529. Before that, the church existed as a chapel. The church was rebuilt in 1571 and 1596, and extended in 1625-36. Following the law of 1866 for the abolition of religious guilds, the church was confiscated and given to the municipality, which from 1875 to 1968 used it as the seat of the municipal library. Today, after the last restoration, it is the seat of the Ethnographic Museum of Musical Instruments "Gaspare Cannone".

Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto

Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto

Venezia, IT

The church of San Giacomo di Rialto is generally considered the oldest church in Venice, consecrated on 25 March 421. However, the first certain mention of the church dates back to May 1152. In 1513 it survived the serious fire that devastated the adjacent commercial area and in 1601 the Doge Marino Grimani ordered its restoration, during which the floor was raised to cope with the high waters. On the outside, a gabled bell tower, its large clock and its Gothic portico, one of the last examples of this type in the city. The interior follows the traditional cross plan with a central dome, imitated later during the Renaissance.

Chiesa di San Giacomo

Chiesa di San Giacomo

Barletta, IT

The church of San Giacomo was consecrated in 1726 on an ancient medieval church. In 1843 an obelisk with a clock was built, which still stands on the north façade. In 1886, an attempt was made to extend the medieval church, which had been badly damaged over the centuries, but the crisis of 1889 prevented this. In 1895, a tower with a clock was built in the square in front of the church. In 2001, the church underwent extensive restoration and structural consolidation.

Chiesa di San Giacomo

Chiesa di San Giacomo

Chiavari, IT

The church of San Giacomo was founded between the 8th and 9th centuries, possibly by the Benedictine monks of Saint Columbanus. Being initially outside the village walls, and therefore unprotected, the church was subject to destruction and looting over the years, the most notorious being that of August 1331 by Catalan pirates, after which it was rebuilt in 1387. In 1427, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John settled there. The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem governed the preceptorship of the church until 1799, when, with the advent of the revolutionary Republic of Liguria, the religious orders were abolished and their property confiscated.

Chiesa di San Giorgio in Velabro

Chiesa di San Giorgio in Velabro

Roma, IT

The church of San Giorgio in Velabro was founded in 685, rebuilt in the 9th century on the initiative of Pope Gregory IV, and enlarged in the 11th century with the remodelling of the portico and the addition of the present five-storey bell tower. The large fresco on the apse's conch is attributed to Pietro Cavallini in the 13th century. In the 20th century, the church was radically restored to its early medieval, even paleochristian, appearance by Antonio Muñoz, Superintendent of Monuments in Rome, between 1923 and 1926. Since 1939, it has been administered by the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross.

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