The small church dedicated to San Francesco della Pace belongs to the ‘Università dei Muratori Scalpellini e Arti Congeneri’ (University for Stonemasons and Congregational Arts), to which is owed its construction around the 17th century.
The church is located on the spot where, according to tradition, the she-wolf tamed by San Francesco lived for about two years. A small side entrance allows access directly from the church to the cave where the animal is believed to have lived.
The church is a small building with a single nave, accessible through an exquisite entrance portal decorated with an oval containing a depiction of the wolf. On the altar is the stone on which St. Francis is said to have held a sermon on peace near the Chiesa della Vittorina, immediately after taming the she-wolf. The church is named after this stone, referred to as ‘della pace’ (of peace), which was transferred from the ‘della Vittorina’ church to that of St. Francis in 1584. The crypt also contains another stone, on which a cross has been carved, venerated as the stone covering the tomb of the wolf. Found in 1873, not far from the church, the tomb housed the remains of an animal identified as a wolf by the vet Giovanni Spinaci. The same room also displays a concrete statue of St. Francis and the she-wolf made by the Gubbio-born artist Antonio Maria Rossi.
The Church is also strongly linked to the city’s Ceri festival. Inside its walls are the statues of the Saints Ubaldo, Giorgio and Antonio, which are placed on the Ceri (huge wooden pedestals) for the 15th May run. Other statues of saints and the Mezzani and Piccoli pedestals are kept in the sacristy.
Finally, mention must be made of the beautiful painting on the back wall of the church, created by the artist Giovanni Michelini in the 17th century, which represents the Virgin and Child with the saints Thomas the Apostle (patron saint of masons), St Ubaldo (patron saint of the city and mural arts) and St. Francis with the wolf.