Church
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Convento e Chiesa di San Francesco
The Convento e Chiesa di San Francesco, founded in 1361, is the oldest religious complex surviving in the Republic of San Marino. Built by master masons using stone from an earlier monastery at Murata, the church features a beautiful rose-window facade, serene cloister gardens, and a rich art gallery (Pinacoteca) featuring fourteenth-century paintings. Beneath its ancient stone pavement lie crypts holding the remains of medieval Franciscan friars and San Marinese nobility. Visitors and art curators report experiencing unexplained cold spots, seeing phantom friars walking through the cloister arcades, and hearing faint chants echoing late at night.