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Origin and history

The Saint Francis convent (San Franzé) is a former Franciscan convent founded in the 13th century in the upper town of Bonifacio, Corsica. Located near the sea cemetery, it faces a military esplanade with views of Sardinia. According to tradition, St Francis of Assisi stopped there in 1215 on a trip between Spain and Italy. The convent, built in 1290 by a master mason of Pistoia, was rebuilt in the 14th century and enlarged in the 17th century after a period of abandonment between 1560 and 1646.

The Conventual Church, erected at the end of the 14th century, has a unique nave and two vaulted bays. Ranked a historic monument in 1976, it houses the marble funerary slab of Ranuccio Spinola (bishop of Ajaccio and Franciscan, died in 1457) as well as a white marble bentier dated 1616. The convent, partially in ruins in the 19th century, was restored between 1978 and 1982, then in 2019. Today, he hosts a music school.

A small settlement dedicated to St.Antoine Hermite would have preceded the Franciscan convent. Among the remarkable elements, a 1752 marble fireplace with Franciscan coat of arms and the Aldovrandi family was moved to the town hall. The site also served for Marie-José Nat's funeral in 2019.

The convent illustrates the influence of begging orders in the Mediterranean and the links between Genoese Corsica, Italy and the Iberian peninsula. Its architecture combines Franciscan simplicity and local adaptations, reflecting the cultural exchanges of the time. The employers' festival, celebrated on October 4, continues its anchoring in Bonifacian religious life.

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