In the heart of the village of Montone, in the Castel Vecchio area, atop one of the two hills that make up the town, stands the Church of San Francesco with the adjoining convent. The building overlooks the main square and is located near the ancient city walls.
The history of the complex is partly shrouded in uncertainty due to the loss of the convent archives, destroyed by a fire at the end of the eighteenth century that also severely damaged the structure and interior decorations. Based on the few surviving documents, it is believed that the Franciscans settled here starting from 1308, in an area already occupied by an older Benedictine settlement dedicated to Saint Ubaldo.
Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the complex underwent significant expansions, thanks to the dedication of the friars and donations from the local community, taking on its current appearance with the addition of the cloister portico and the convent. With the unification of Italy and the suppression of religious orders, the church and convent became state property. After 20th-century restorations, since 1995 they have housed the Municipal Museum.
Architecture and decoration
The church is built according to the typical architecture of mendicant orders: a single nave, polygonal apse, truss roof, and westward orientation. Inside, it appears as a collection of fragments of frescoes suggesting a once complete wall decoration, sadly lost. It is possible, however, to determine that the fresco decorations were created from the second half of the 1300s to the first half of the 1600s approximately. The main artistic reference is primarily the Umbrian-Perugian style.
The Fortebracci Patrons
Of particular historical and artistic significance is the connection with the Fortebracci family, key figures in the political and cultural life of the village in the fifteenth century. They are responsible for some of the most important commissions still visible inside the church. Among these stands out the cycle of frescoes in the apse, created between 1422 and 1423 by Antonio Alberti da Ferrara, one of the leading exponents of the International Gothic style in Umbria.
Commissioned by Braccio Fortebracci, the artist depicted the Last Judgment in the archway, with Christ the Judge at the center, and the Stories of the Life of Saint Francis on the walls below. In the vaults of the apse, alongside the four Evangelists and the Risen Christ, appears the Fortebracci coat of arms – a black ram between two golden cheetahs – placed above the bifora as a distinctive mark of the powerful patron.
The side altars
The first side altar was erected in 1476 by Carlo Fortebracci, son of Braccio, as a votive offering to Saint Anthony of Padua for the birth of an heir. The quality of the sculptural structure and the presence of the patrons’ coats of arms make it one of the most valuable elements of the church. The pictorial decoration was completed in 1491 by Bartolomeo Caporali, who painted the fresco featuring Saint Anthony of Padua in a mandorla of cherubs, flanked by Saint John the Baptist, Archangel Raphael, and Tobias.
The second altar, created in the 15th century by the Franciscan friars and dedicated to the Virgin, originally housed the processional banner painted by Bartolomeo Caporali in 1482. The small shrine, typical of the Umbrian Renaissance and linked to the circle of Agostino di Duccio, contained the famous Madonna of Mercy, now preserved in the Municipal Art Gallery.
Frescoes and furnishings
On the sides of the polygonal apse, there are two frescoed shrines from the Umbrian school, dating back to the 15th century, uncovered only after recent restorations. The first depicts a historical event related to the election of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere, symbolized by the oak branches intertwined behind the Virgin’s throne.
The second was commissioned by Giobbe di Bencivenni Fortebracci and houses the burial of his son Albertus, commemorated by an epigraph. The fragmentary nature of the frescoes and numerous superimpositions make a cohesive reading of the pictorial cycle complex; however, sources attest to the presence of great masters of the Umbrian Renaissance, such as Berto di Giovanni and Luca Signorelli, whose works were later dispersed due to French requisitions and the post-unification suppression of religious institutions. Alongside the wall decoration, the church preserves precious wooden furnishings: the choir in the apse and the magistrates’ bench (15th-16th century), the 17th-century pulpit, and the monumental walnut and poplar door, made in 1519 by Antonio Bencivenni da Mercatello.