Iglesia de San Francisco de Asís de Linares

The Church of San Francisco de Asís, in the city centre, dates from the 16th century, when the Franciscans settled in Linares. Adjoining the church was the convent whose cloister has now become the central courtyard of the Post and Telegraph Office building. The church was enlarged during the 17th and 18th centuries. The bell tower was added in 1927.

The main façade, the work of Eufrasio López de Rojas, is in Baroque style, made up of a semicircular arch with ornamental keystone and flanked by twin Doric columns on pedestals, supporting a split pediment decorated with triglyphs and metopes. Over this there is a small niche with a semicircular arch housing a stone sculpture of San Francisco de Asís. All this is crowned by a bell gable with three arched openings and a forged iron cross.

The interior is a rectangular nave, built in the 17th century. There are side chapels and a barrel vault joined with false arches and lunettes and decorated with passages of the life of San Francisco de Asís. A basket arch supports the choir. Four chapels with oval vaults on pendentives were added in the decade from 1720-1730 and subsequently one more was added. The highlight is the beautiful altarpiece in Andalusian Baroque style (17th century).