The largest convent complex in Este, for centuries a school and a center of civil life.
A Franciscan complex since the early 1200s, it was built in its current forms in the 1600s, incorporating a part of the Venetian walls along the Bisatto into the convent. The convent was used after Napoleon as a barracks, courthouse, prison, and especially as a school; from 1922 it was a Bishop's College until 1975. Today it houses I.I.S. ATESTINO.
The Convent of St. Francis, now the former Bishop's, presents itself, even to a careless glance, as the "jewel" of the city: a formidable complex that has occupied the southwest corner of the Bisatto since the 1700s, giving its name to the second bridge over the canal after that of the Tower.
There was an important and complex relationship between the river and the entire complex which had a landing area and a boatyard, just like the villas of the Venetians and the docks of the commercial port. It almost seems that the canal was dug to avoid the convent, which instead was built in a barely developed corner of the already walled city, following the tendency of municipalities to push Franciscans and Dominicans, who were in constant competition and conflict, away from the center.
The layout of the Franciscan urban area, empty to the north and along the walls, with the convent complex at the corner of the Bisatto, has remained practically intact until a few decades ago, when the Social Theatre and then some apartment buildings urbanized the large brolo starting from Via Zanchi.
The building as we see it today was constructed shortly before the middle of the 17th century, on the site of a medieval church (St. Mary of the Angels) and the attached convent, managed by the Order of Friars Minor since the second half of the 13th century.
The church and the convent have followed the same fate: an important reference for the city until 1800, then desecrated and suppressed, and used in various ways. The church we see today, used as a gym, is the 18th-century reconstruction of an important medieval church, so much so that it housed the 15th-century tombs of the last Marquesses of Este, Taddeo and Bertoldo, before being destroyed in a fire (1684).
The convent and church, after the suppression of the religious orders by Napoleon, were used for other functions, always of general interest: in particular as a college (long managed by religious and recently lay). During World War II, the convent was used as a courthouse and prison (partisans and, for short periods, Jews were also detained there) and in the final war period, it housed the Nazi military intelligence services.
The imposing architecture of the 17th-century convent occupies a broader area than what appears from the entrance atrium, confined by the facade of the 18th-century church, which prevents a full view of the perfect square side of the convent (certainly the largest building in the historic city).
The regular plan and the widespread signs of the vaults testify to the functional quality of the design, perfectly preserved, despite the different and multiple uses over time.
The Palladian design, of a quality that suggests Scamozzi (who was in Este around 1615), strongly emerges in the courtyard, regular and refined in the texture of the ground floor arches and the semi-columns that rhythm the tympanum windows on the upper wall.
The courtyard, during the restoration work of the 1990s, was cleaned and the color contrasts between the brick and marbles, a fundamental motif of the overall design of the complex, are once again fully enjoyable, presenting itself externally with a modest and severe plaster.
The space between Via Garibaldi and the convent, always set up as a monumental square, has not found a solution since the complex became communal. After the space for fairs, since the mid-20th century attempts have been made to turn it into a public garden, which defines the true atrium in front of the church.
Paradoxically, the complex becomes public and the space gets privatized. In fact, in 1873 the atrium in front of the convent, used along with the church as a barracks, was separated from the roads by a gate.
The space closed by the gate is defined as "fair square."
The important and decent gate will later be replaced "to donate the iron to the homeland" at the dawn of World War II.
The former convent complex can be seen from beyond the Bisatto as it did three hundred years ago, and the two hackberry trees that shade it seem to signify a continuity of greenery with gardens and broli that characterized the convent's appurtenances, within the ancient walls of the medieval city.
In the early 1900s, the Bishop's courtyard was chosen as the terminus for the tram that connected the city with S. Elena, particularly significant because it passed by the railway station.
