Church of San Francesco or of the Convent - Tortorici

The Church of San Francesco, also known as the Church of the Convent of the Friars Minor, is a National Monument and was built, in the current site, in 1602, recovering the materials of the already existing Church of Santa Maria Extramoenia, as evidenced by the above door in which we read the date of 1432. The fifteenth-century central portal was completed in the following period, the side doors are from 1686. The lateral portal, in the Norman Gothic style, also recovered from the previous church, is of remarkable artistic beauty. The building has three naves and, on the main altar, dated 1689, it is possible to admire a beautiful Valencian brick floor, while the rest of the Church has red marble flooring from San Marco d'Alunzio. In the side altar on the right, there is the wooden statue of San Paolo from 1658, sculpted by Sebastiano Leone, a local artist and gilded by Giuseppe Giovanni. On the left is the marble group of San Francesco and Frate Leone executed by the sons of Antonello Gagini in 1559. In the wonderful wooden ceiling, the figures of Sant'Antonio, San Francesco and the Immacolata decorated by Giuseppe Tomasi in 1600 stand out. at the church there are the bell tower with a mechanical clock from the 1700s and the remains of the former Franciscan convent active until 1866.