Cortona - San Francesco

To the east of the Palazzo Comunale is the Church of San Francesco, the building of which began in 1245, making it one of the earliest Franciscan churches. The exterior of this aisleless Gothic church is plain and undecorated; the interior was, rather unhappily, remodeled in the Baroque period. Its greatest treasure (not always visible) is a Reliquary of the True Cross, consisting of a Byzantine ivory tablet in a 16th century frame. In the choir can be seen the tomb of the church's founder, Fra Elia da Cortona. The painter Luca Signorelli (d. 1523) is also believed to have been buried here.