The Franciscan monastery and the church of st Francis of Assisi
Old chronicles say that the Franciscans arrived in Dubrovnik in 1219. Their first monastery situated at the Pile Gate was destroyed at the beginning of the 14th century out of fear not to be captured by the enemies of Dubrovnik and then used as a stronghold in the siege of the city. The construction of the new monastery, placed at the very north-western part of the city, between the main street Place and the city walls, started in 1317 and lasted for quite a long time. Some parts of the monastery were destroyed for several times and then reconstructed, but the major reconstruction followed the 1667 earthquake and the great fire that caught Dubrovnik three days later, when the monastery church and library were almost completely destroyed. The portal of the church is all that remains of that richly decorated church. It is known for its remarkable Pieta sculpted in the late-Gothic style by the local artisans Leonard and Petar Petrović around 1499. Today the portal is on the southern lateral wall of the church, although it is assumed that once was part of the facade. The statue of God the Father is placed above the luneta while the statues of St Jerome and St John the Baptist stand on the door-posts. After the fire the church was restored in the Baroque style, and its richly decorated interior is known for its pulpit from the 15th century, the main altar with the monumental statue of the Resurrected Savior, done by the sculptor Celia from Ancona (1713) and other five altars sculpted by the Venetian Giuseppe Sardi beween 1684 and 1696. The altar pala of St Francis (1888) is a master piece by the famous painter Celectin Medović from the Pelješac peninsula. Inside the church is the tomb of Ivan Gundulić, a great poet from Dubrovnik. An exceptional attraction of the Franciscan monastery (called the monastery of the Little Brothers as well) is a beautiful Romanesque-Gothic cloister where each capital over the dual columns is topped by a different figure, portraying human heads, animal and floral arrangements. The cloister is sculpted by Mihoje Brajkov from Bar in the period from 1327 to 1348. Inside the monastery complex is another Gothic cloister, but not available to public. Further inside is one of the oldest functioning pharmacies in Europe. According tradition, it is established together with the monastery in 1317. Many valuable paintings as well as gold and silver pieces of art and mass service vestments, and pharmacy items such as lab gear and medical books are exhibited there. The monastery library, one of the richest in Croatia, keeps more than 30.000 volumes with 137 precious incunabula, volumes of old church corals and over 1200 old manuscripts. In the sacristy which was not destroyed in the earthquake is a Gothic chapel of the Bunić family from 1472. After the earthquake, the upper part of the Gothic tower was changed. The Franciscan monastery was damaged quite a lot during the Serbian-Montenegrin aggression on Dubrovnik (1991-1992) when it was directly hit by 37