Church of St Francesco
The church of San Francesco stands in the square of the same name and is the oldest church still exists in Umbertide. The church of St. Francis was reopened for worship and to the public February 12, 2005, during a ceremony which was attended by a large number of citizens also important institutional figures. The important conservative restoration that has returned to the city one of its oldest and most interesting, was necessitated by damage caused by the earthquakes began September 26, 1997. Construction began since the 90s of the thirteenth century in what was called the "lower village" of the castle of Fratta. A few years before the Friars Minor had built the churches of San Francesco in Città di Castello and Montone. Its architecture is typical of the medieval churches of the mendicant orders: nave roof truss Gothic windows bifori or trifori, square or semi-circular apse. Only later was added to the left aisle where in the early '500 chapels were opened and the Crucifix of San Rocco. In those same years was still active the yard of the convent of San Francesco, attached to the church. Inside the church are still preserved works of great importance iconographic art and history. On the opposite, on the left side of the portal entrance, you can see a beautiful fresco of St. Christopher, dating back to the early fifteenth century and created by an unknown painter from the late Gothic, recognized Ottaviano Nelli of Gubbio, the undisputed protagonist of that environment in central Italy. This is the only evidence-century art present in church together with the fresco depicting St. Bartholomew in one of the columns separating the nave from the side. Another fresco, later and more difficult to read is located on the left wall of the nave and its bottom two figures including Saint Lucia is recognizable. The altars are decorated with coats of arms and inscriptions which are found in the walls of the church were all made at the beginning of the seventeenth century and are headed to San Carlo Borromeo, inspiration of the Council of Trent, St. Anne, mother of Mary, in the Gospels apocryphal and much revered in the past, St. Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church and San Francesco di Paola, who is also dedicated an altar in the adjoining church of Santa Croce. The altars, now restored, are paintings of the same period with the exception of that of St. Anthony, which contains a glass case behind a beautiful statue of Franciscan saint with the baby.
Finally, it is to remember the last chapel on the left wall, back to the other two, that of the Immaculate Conception, where there is a statue of the Virgin is carried in procession on Good Friday. Two other important works were once kept in San Francisco and now find themselves in the church-museum of Santa Croce. This is the beautiful statue of San Rocco made for the chapel of the same name in 1527 in order to prevent a new outbreak of the plague. The work, due to a group of statues scattered in Umbria, maybe it comes from a workshop of artists from Borgo San Sepolcro on which it is conducting a study. The other work is a painting of the Madonna and Child with some saints, including Francis, patron of the church, and is signed and dated by the famous mannerist painter Nicholas Circignani Pomarancio, very active in the second half of the 500 in the upper valley of the Tiber. He left Fratta at least another painting from the Abbey of Montecorona and nowadays kept at the Collegiate Umbertide. The painting from St. Francis stood before the earthquake of 1997 in the chapel of the Crucifix and built by the family of Civitella Ranieri.