Chiesa e Convento di San Francesco

Though very badly preserved, San Francesco is a typical example of north-Italian "hall church", built during the fourteenth century by the Franciscan friars who had settled in Alessandria. Originally, the church was part of the Franciscan monastery, but in the nineteenth century it was transformed into a military hospital. Some traces of the ancient facade are still visible today, while the interior, repeatedly rearranged in the course of the centuries, has vast ogival vaults. The church is now undergoing complex restoration.