Church of San Francesco

Chiesa e Chiostro di San Francesco dai tetti (A. Matteucci)

The chapel of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca: inside the church, the second chapel of the right wing of the transept was owned by the della Gherardesca family and looking at the ground we can see the following inscription TUMBA COMITIS UGOLINI. In 2001, anthropologist Francesco Mallegni exhumed the remains of Ugolino and his family members buried here (even if they were originally in the cloister, where an epigraph still remains). A DNA analysis of the bones revealed five individuals from three generations of the same family. In addition, analyses of the ribs of the alleged skeleton of Ugolino revealed traces of magnesium, but not zinc, which would be evident if the Count had consumed meat in the weeks before his death. Another detail that definitively drops the accusations of cannibalism, is that Count Ugolino was a very old man for the time, therefore almost toothless when he was imprisoned. However, the accusations of high treason still remain. This same chapel was transformed, in the Fascist era, into the chapel of the Fallen and decorated in 1928 with monarchical and lictor symbols.

The glass windows: Near the left transept, in front of the apse chapels, at the top there is a large mullioned window (1929), painted by Francesco Mossmeyer in the style of the originals, which depicts the face of Benito Mussolini. Not quite a Franciscan model, is linked to the Fascist period. Both wings of the transept are decorated with 5 stained glass windows, painted on the original model by Francesco Mossmeyer in 1926, representing the stories of San Francesco. There are 7 apses, repainted between 1903 and 1930 by the atelier of Ulisse de Matteis and by Mossmeyer, but that of the main chapel was commissioned in 1341.