The Cathedral of San Francesco d'Assisi of Civitavecchia, which is also a bishopric, was built in 1610 on the remains of a small Franciscan church.
The large growth of Civitavecchia due to the renewed activity of the port had led to an increase in the population that needed larger places of worship.
For this reason, at the end of the eighteenth century, Pope Clemente XIV, of Franciscan origin, decided to expand the church and commissioned the architect Francesco Navona. The late Baroque / Neoclassical style of the building preserves some Baroque elements in the richness of the interior decorations.
On the outside it has a high baroque facade with a double Ionic columns and a single entrance door at the end of a wide entrance stairway. The façade is adorned with two statues representing Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Anthony of Padua.
The interior has a single nave with symmetrical side chapels and a large arch that divides the nave from the altar area. The altar is inserted inside a majestic aedicule with precious marbles and above the tympanum are the statues of Justice and Hope.
Among the valuable paintings is the altar depicting St. Francis receiving the stigmata in the Verna and a painting of the Nativity of Our Lord from Domenichino's school is located in one of the side chapels.
The church has a bell tower whose bells were built with the metal of two cannons given by the Pope.
Seriously damaged by the bombings of the Second World War, it was completely restored in 1950.
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