Convent and church of Saint Francis, Pontevedra
gothic church and convent in Pontevedra, Spain
The Convent of St. Francis (Spanish: San Francisco) is a Franciscan convent located in the city centre of Pontevedra (Spain), overlooking the Plaza de la Herrería. The Gothic church of San Francis is attached to the convent on the southeast side.
History
According to tradition, the convent was founded by Francis of Assisi, who stopped in Pontevedra when he was on the Portuguese Way to Santiago de Compostela. The arrival of the Franciscan order in the city may have taken place in the last third of the 13th century, the building being constructed between 1310 and 1360, with the economic help of the heirs of Paio Gomez Charino. The convent was built on the site of a former Templar house and church on land belonging to the Soutomaior noble family, next to the walls of Pontevedra, taking advantage of several old towers, one of which has medieval remains, possibly dating from the 11th century. At that time it was still outside the city walls.
The opulence of this construction was the envy of the members of the Dominican Order settled in the city, who had completed their church ten years earlier, and who in 1380 decided to start the construction of another church larger than the Franciscan one, with five apses.
In 1362, the construction of the apse of the church of the Poor Clares, similar to that of St. Francis, but smaller in size, was begun in the city.
The public source identifies “Convent and church of Saint Francis, Pontevedra” as gothic church and convent in Pontevedra, Spain. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Convent, church and Saint.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5166342. Authority coordinates are 42.431, -8.643. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1310, 1360, 1380 and 1362.
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This entry incorporates text from “Convent and church of Saint Francis, Pontevedra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.