| The minster and the church of the same name are located on the north-western side of the kaptol Square, where the square narrows into a street leading north. Although this large-sized church was built in the 13th century, it is possible that the Franciscans had their residence on the same place even earlier. Gothic structure of the interior of this large onenave church with long choir stalls and elongated shrine has not changed much and is considered, in terms of space, as one of the best-quality Franciscan sacral buildings of central Europe. It has a crossribbed arched ceiling. The Chapel of St.Frances is decorated with painted cartouches showing the life of St.Frances and with plastically expressed plant motifs and angels. The early baroque cycle of stucco decoration with elements of mannerism dates from arround 1683. The church and the monastery were thoroughly renovated after the 1880 earthquake, when attempts were made to attain the original Gothic character of the building. A new, high steeple was added to the church then. During the reconstruction, a Chapel of Crucified Jesus was built on the Kaptol side of the church. In 1936, building of so-called Franciscans'Hall, today's Theatre Komedija, started on the southern side of the monastery, between Kaptol and Opatovina. The main neo-gothic altar of the church contains the painting St.Francis, the work of Celestin Medovic. The stained-glass windows in the apses, with motifs inspired by The Flowers of St.Francis, are the work of painter Ivo Dulcic (1960). |