CHIESA DI SAN FRANCESCO

It is the first Franciscan church built in Sicily and its foundations date back to 1216. Shipwrecked in Milazzo, Anthony of Padua was welcomed here in 1221. Enlarged in 1254, it became a royal burial place for the remains of Frederick IV of Aragon, King of Sicily, who died in 1377. Badly affected by the earthquake of 1908, only the apses made by Antonello da Messina were spared. It was rebuilt in 1928 but almost all the original paintings were transferred to the regional museum after the earthquake.