The church of San Francisco is a religious temple located in the Paseo das Pontes in A Coruña, an area crossed diagonally by an ancient aqueduct. Originally it was in the Old City and was part of the primitive Franciscan convent located outside the ancient walls, on a hill high on the rocks, facing the sea. This location outside the walls was precisely the reason for its destruction, as during the English siege of A Coruña, in the 16th century, it was set on fire to prevent the enemy from fortifying it in the convent. Its ruins, when still in their original location, were declared a National Monument by Order on March 16, 1939.
In 1589 the Marquis of Cerralbo, captain general of Galicia, ordered the convent to be set on fire to prevent it from being used by the English during the siege of Drake, but it was later rebuilt on the same site. In 1651 it underwent a new fire due to the explosion of the near powder magazine of San Carlos, located where at the moment it is the garden of the same name. After the secularization of 1835 it was converted into a correctional prison and later the premises of the 8th General Company of the Army were installed, so that the church was gradually demolished. At the beginning of the 20th century only part of the convent's façade was preserved and the rest was adapted for military use. In 1964, the church was moved to its current location, and although it was in operation, it failed to complete access through its main façade. The existing configuration of the church dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although in its new location has been greatly modified. Reconstruction was done from the three head chapels, a 16th-century chapel that has been relocated and the main façade.
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