The convent of San Francisco is a Franciscan convent in Pontevedra , located in the center of town. It is currently occupied by four friars.
According to tradition, the convent was founded by Francis of Assisi , who stopped in Pontevedra while doing the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago . The arrival of the Franciscan order in the city took place possibly in the last third of the 13th century . A historically proven fact is that the foundation already existed in 1274 , according to the National Archive and in papers of the monastery of Armenteira, testamentary of Arias Fernández. The building had the financial help of the heirs of Paio Gómez Chariño in a lot of the house of Soutomaior, at that time still outside the perimeter of the city wall.
The opulence of this construction provoked envy in the members of the Dominican order installed in the city, who had finished their church ten years before, and who decided to start in 1380 the construction of another church larger than the Franciscan, with five apses. In 1362 construction began on the head of the church of the Poor Clare nuns in the city, similar to that of San Francisco, but smaller. In addition to these three buildings, the parish church of St. Bartholomew had been enlarged between 1337 and 1339. This great boom in construction was due to the large number of economic donations from wealthy families, fearful of death from the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe at that time.
The church is of late Gothic or ogival style , and was declared a historical-artistic monument in 1896. It has a Latin cross plan, with a single nave, transept, wooden roof and head with three polygonal apses, covered with cruciform vaults.
The building that occupies the Delegation of Property was constructed in 1800, and includes the door of Santo Domingo of the old wall of the city, of Century XIII.
Frying pan of Father Gómez Chariño
Inside are the frets of Father Gómez Chariño, Xoán Feijoo de Soutomaior , and Paio de Montenegro .
After the confiscation of Mendizábal the enclosure was uninhabited, being property of the city council. On January 15, 1909, Father Luis María Fernández Espinosa and 5 other religious returned to live on the site, with a 25-year lease, at 250 pesetas per year. In 1930 the temple was ceded by Royal Order.
On a summer night in 1995 the temple suffered a fire, being restored shortly afterwards.
In this convent is the dining room of San Francisco, which from Monday to Saturday feeds a good number of the needy.
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