Church of San Francesco

The church was erected in 1289 by Franciscan friars, who arrived in Gargnano at the behest of the Bishop of Brescia. The exterior preserves its Romanesque imprint, interpreted in the Franciscan manner, that is, in a simple and poor style. On the façade, in the shape of a hut, there is a votive statue (1301) depicting the image of Saint Anthony of Padua. The interior of the church, which houses paintings by Giovanni Andrea Bertanza and Andrea Celesti, was originally divided into three naves, later demolished and reduced to one, probably between the 17th and 18th centuries. On the right side of the building is the cloister of the former Franciscan convent. Built in the first half of the 14th century, it takes the form of a small square courtyard surrounded by a Venetian-style portico of inflected arches resting on the capitals of cylindrical columns. The cloister also houses two ancient traces from the Roman period, found in Gargnano: a plaque (discovered in 1837) is dedicated to Neptune, while a small altar honours Revino, a local deity. Still in the cloister, the 15th-century marble coat of arms of the Municipality of Gargnano, identified by the initials C.G.: Communitatis Gargnani. The heraldic coat of arms depicts a rampant she-wolf holding a lily between its paws, surmounted by an inverted crown. In 1879, the convent became the property of the Lake Garda Society, which adapted it as a citrus fruit warehouse; it was not until 1912 that the Italian government recognised the church as a national monument.