San Francesco

Frommer's Review

Pistoia's barnlike Franciscan church contains lots of good 14th-century frescoes, the best of which are in the chapels along the transept. Behind the high altar is a fresco cycle on the Life of St. Francis by a Giotto copycat (perhaps a student) who mimicked his master's formulae for most of the scenes. The chapel to the left has a Sienese-school cycle of an Allegory of the Triumph of St. Augustine. After giving a nod to the frescoes in the second chapel to the right of the high altar, go through the door at the transept's end for a peek at more 14th-century works in the sacristy. If it's open (if you're quiet about it, you can lift the blockade bar yourself), pass though the door into the chapter house beyond for even better frescoes, including a giant Tree of Life that just might be by the hand of Sienese master Pietro Lorenzetti.

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