Ulica Svetog Franje Asiskog 9
Open: Jun- Sep: 10am- 1pm, 4- 8pm
Monastery and Church of Saint Francis of Assissi is located on the Western slope of the hill in the historic center of Pula. Monastery was built on a site of an early Christian complex dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Current structure was constructed in 1170's by Jacob Pulyanina. Entrance to the monastery and the church is decorated with medieval stone monuments and murals. The altar in the Church of Saint Francis dates back to the 15th century.
The Franciscans came to Pula immediately after St.
Francis' Francis founded the Franciscan Order with the oral consent
of Pope Inocent III in 1209. The Franciscan Gothic structure of the
monastery and church was completed by the late seventies of the 13th
century, built by the master of the builder, Fr. Jakov Puljanin,
conceived in accordance with the rules of the preaching order given
in Narbonne in 1260. This implies a typical rectangular floor plan
of the church with a square shrine, a single bell tower, a cloister
and a monastery with fraternal residence, a hall, a refectory, and a
sacristy connecting the church monastery.
The church is
shaped as simple and rigorous, as it fits the church of the
nobility. Fine processing of stone squares, from which the walls
were built, leads to a conclusion about the mastery of the masters
who participated in the construction. On the main altar, a large
wooden gilded polyptych from the middle of the 15th century, created
under the influence of the Vivarini School, is one of the most
valuable pieces of wooden Gothic plastics in Istria. On the central
field is the high relief of the Virgin with Christ, and on the side
and the row above the relief there are altogether 12 sacred
characters. The polyptych ends with carved Gothic fijals. The
monastery has a cloister with early Renaissance columns, built in
the 15th century. Along with the church, the Gothic cloister with
Renaissance adaptations; in the cloister and in front of the church
there are a monuments of medieval monuments and a collection of
copies of wall paintings from Istria.
The value of the
Franciscan assembly is in the simple monumentality created by the
collapse of the Gothic forms and the Mediterranean tradition of
construction. In the church of St. The Franciscan Monastery in Pula
contains the remains of St. Oton, which, according to some sources,
came to Pula in about 1235, when the monastery was founded. He died
in Pula in 1241 in the gloss of holiness, and numerous healings of
his vows are recorded in many books and martyrs of the Franciscan
order. In Pula, the worship of St. Oton continues even today.