The San Francesco Complex

The San Francesco Complex – with an internal surface area of over 6,000 m2 – is the original heart of the IMT School, inaugurated in July 2013 in the presence of Italian Education Minister Maria Chiara Carrozza. 
The complex includes the Church of San Francesco, the Guinigi Chapel, the Sacristy, classrooms, residential facilities for students, short- and medium-term accommodation for the academic community, offices for faculty and staff, and indoor and outdoor spaces for study and socialising.
A mixture of humanity from every corner of the globe concentrated in a campus that encourages knowledge and cultural exchange, in osmosis with the surrounding area and its inhabitants, services and initiatives. It goes without saying that such a microcosm cannot be without a canteen: open three hundred and fifty days a year, the IMT School canteen has a capacity of almost a hundred places and is open to both internal and, partially, external users.
Forty-one double rooms and thirteen single rooms make up the university residence proper, dedicated to a maximum of one hundred and five students, while the guest quarters – consisting of four single rooms with private bathroom, four one-room flats and no less than five two-room flats – are intended for lecturers, visiting professors, researchers, conference interpreters and various guests.
 

The San Francesco Complex is a former convent complex – which obviously includes the church – custodian of a nine-century-long history, which the imposing restoration that took place between 2011 and 2013 (commissioned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca) has also brought back to light in its various phases, returning to the city – in addition to a splendidly recovered architectural jewel and the revitalisation of the surrounding urban area –, an important historical dimension: the not coincidental link between Lucca and St. Francis of Assisi who, according to tradition, belonged to a branch of the Lucchese Moriconi family, transferred in ancient times to Umbria.


The first settlement of Franciscans in Lucca dates back to 1200, when the first building of the complex was opened. The current appearance dates back to the 17th century. With the Kingdom of Italy, starting in 1862, the convent was turned into barracks and the church into a warehouse. It was not until the early 20th century that the church was reopened for worship and the Franciscans regained possession of the convent premises, apart from the portion called the “Stecca” used as barracks. In 2003, the Franciscans finally left the convent, which remained abandoned until the inauguration of the IMT School in 2013, with its rebirth as an international residential campus of a Doctoral School where students from all over the world are provided with free room and board.  

Thus, without a break in continuity, but in line with the ideal path of hospitality that once belonged to the Franciscans, its spaces host events and seminars – often open to the city – lectio magistralis, meetings and lectures in its cloisters, the Church of San Francesco (which can accommodate up to six hundred people), the Cappella Guinigi Auditorium (with one hundred and twenty seats), the Sacristy, the Sala della Botte, the former refectory and the Sala Canova.


Forty-one double rooms and thirteen single rooms make up the university residence proper, dedicated to a maximum of one hundred and five students, while the guest quarters – four single rooms with private bathroom, four one-room flats and no less than five two-room flats – are intended for lecturers, visiting professors, researchers, conference interpreters and guests in various capacities at the School.