Not even twenty years after the death of the Saint, a church dedicated to Francis of Assisi was built here (1244), one of the oldest in the world. It was used by the Frati Minori (the street on the left of the building is named after them). Nowadays, we see the edifice as it was restored at the beginning of the 19th century by Gusmano Soli.
The facade is gabled, with a huge rose window and buttresses.
The nave and the aisles of the church have neo-Gothic arches and wonderful decorations. In the left apse, there is an extraordinary Deposition from the Cross by Antonio Begarelli, dated 1531: thirteen terraccotta life sized statues, near the three crosses of the Golgotha. In the choir of the nave, Saint Francis receiving the stigmata by the Modenese 19th century-painter Adeodato Malatesta. In the right aisle, the Mainoni altar dates back to 1840 and was built to commemorate the end of the cholera epidemic. The organ is from the end of the 19th century.
The edifice next to the church is the metropolitan seminary, a typical example of Modenese architecture of the 19th century. In the interior, the huge cloister has twin columns and a statue of the Virgin.
In the little square on the right of Saint Francis, the fountain represents the Saint and it is a work of the famous Modenese sculptor Giuseppe Graziosi. The bell tower dates back to the 16th century and is characterized by an octagonal base.
