The Franciscan convent of San Giacomo – locally known as the convent of St Francis – is situated just outside the original town of Ofena. Surrounded on three sides by an olive grove, it rises up from its sloping site, framed by the La Serra and Cappucciata mountains and, higher up, by the towns of Carapelle and Castelvecchio and the profile of Rocca Calascio. The complex occupies a large area of approx 65 x 43 m. The site is the result of a complex stratification of individual buildings, centred around a small quadrangular cloister, with a portico on the ground floor surmounted by windows. Toward the valley, orthogonally aligned to the long side of the courtyard, the Church
of St Francis does not mark the extremity of the block of buildings, but is entirely absorbed within and preceded by a porticoed avant-corps hosting the main entrances to the convent. A critical-conservative nature restoration project – developed after a study of the building’s material, compositional, organisational, functional and structural aspects – involved the church and the buildings connected to it. The objective is to maintain the legibility of the historical layers of the complex, while also searching for a contemporary language, compatible with the existing, and obtaining the correct degree of distinguishability between new and old.
The exterior elevations were the object of works of consolidate masonry, treat historical surfaces and enclose the building by adding new roofs and installing new windows. Inside, the principles of restoring a ruin were applied to the walls and floor of the church hall. These works also extended into the sacristy, the entry portico and the chapel dedicated to St Anne. Additionally, to allow the church to be reopened for worship, the liturgical spaces were reorganised and new lighting installed. The spaces of the south-west block, consisting of three rooms on the ground floor and a series of rooms on the upper level, will be converted into service spaces, though only in the area adjacent to the chapel.
