There are many different theories about the origin of the church; the oldest structures visible today have the stylistic features of the 14th century.
In addition to the three apses of the church and the bell tower, which are characterised by the accurate head and cross masonry and high decorative bands, the sacristy, which houses the Parish Museum, and the adjoining small cloister with cylindrical pilasters can also be assigned to this first phase.
The decorations, carried out on behalf of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga, in the area in the central apse date back to 1591: they are stucco works that cover the umbrella vault of the basin and part of the walls with richness. This wealth of ornamentation was intended to aesthetically redevelop the part behind the altar which, since its foundation, the Marquises of Monferrato had reserved for their burials.
Towards the middle of the 17th century a large part of the church collapsed and it was immediately decided to rebuild it according to the project of Vincenzo Rovere, a monk in the same monastery. The convent church of St. Francis, originally annexed to the adjoining Franciscan convent (Friars Minor Conventual), from 1783 hosted the parish services, to become a parish church for all intents and purposes in 1802, when the convents and religious communities were suppressed.
The present façade was built only in 1932 and dedicated to the fallen of the First World War.
The church organ is electrically conductive and was made in 1942 by the company Vincenzo Mascioni of Cuvio (Varese) using pipes from the previous instrument, made in 1832 by the famous organ-makers Serassi of Bergamo and modified in 1881 by the Mentasti of Varese.
At the end of the nave, behind the high altar and above the choir, the frescoes are the work of the painter Mario Micheletti and represent “Creation: from original sin to salvation” (1943).
By the same author is the fresco of the central dome, which illustrates the Song of the Creatures, and the paintings of the Way of the Cross placed in the corridor of the sacristy museum.
The Parish Church of San Francesco is the real picture gallery of the painter Guglielmo Caccia known as ‘Il Moncalvo’ (1568 – 1625), the greatest exponent of Counter-Reformation art in Piedmont, and his daughter Orsola Maddalena Caccia (1596 – 1676). Among the masterpieces that can be admired are ‘The Franciscan allegory’, ‘The martyrdom of St. Ursula’, ‘The Nativity of St. John’ and ‘The Nativity of St. John’.
Baptist”, “The adoration of the Magi”, “Saint Anthony of Padua raises a dead man”, “The martyr of Saint Maurice”. In the chapel of St. Anthony, located at the end of the left aisle of the Church, there is also the tomb of Guglielmo Caccia.
Particularly suggestive are also the paintings “San Luca nello Studio”. the “Jesus in the desert served by angels” and the “Madonna and Child, St. Francis, St. Charles Borromeo and St. Helena” housed in the adjacent Parish Museum, set up in the fourteenth-century sacristy, where you can also admire the fifteenth-century altarpiece “Madonna enthroned with Child and Saints Martin and Rocco” attributed to Bartolomeo Bonone and already located in the chapel of the castle of Moncalvo. The Parish Museum also houses vestments, furnishings and liturgical objects: in particular, there is a peace-reliquary; it is a medieval liturgical ornamentation, consisting of a tablet or medallion with a sacred image, which was sometimes brought to the kiss of certain people, both ecclesiastical and lay, during mass.
solemn, before communion: it replaced the embrace or kiss of peace between people themselves. Scholars believe that this artefact can date back to the first half of the fifteenth century and, given its quality and elegance, they propose that it should be traced back to the circle of Michelino da Besozzo, a painter and miniaturist who lived between about 1370 and about 1455, one of the main exponents of the
International Gothic, active above all in Lombardy, also in the construction site of Milan Cathedral.
