The Church of San Francesco Oristano stands beside the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and the Archbishop’s Seminary. Inside there is also the Convent of St. Francis, built in 1335 but completely modified and finished with the church in 800.
The Church of San Francesco Oristano has a neoclassical façade, but initially the little church (or when the Franciscans arrived in Oristano in 1253) was in Gothic style.
The facade of the Church of San Francesco opens three portals, and consists of two pillars and four columns that hold the eardrum. A semi-spherical dome, with an octagonal lantern, crowns the building.
The centre-core interior has two caps per side. The dome, decorated with chest of drawers, is supported by columns and semicolons with Ionic capitals.
The first chapel to the left houses the Christ of Nicodemus, a notable 14th-century wooden sculpture of Spanish school, prototype of a series of crucifixes, including the wooden crucifix of Ollolai, kept in various churches in Sardinia.
In the sacristy are preserved other precious works, such as the panel (1533), once part of a retablo, depicting St. Francis while receiving the stigmata, by Pietro Cavaro and the marble statue (1368), perhaps depicting St. Basil Magno attributed to Nino Pisano.
Here the map to the Church of San Francesco Oristano: