Legend has it that when San Francesco passed from Bari on his return from the Holy Land, the monastery of San Francesco della Scarpa, located in via Pier l’Eremita, in the old city of Bari, was built right in the presence of the saint of Assisi , almost opposite the port entrance. Just the Saint would have laid the foundation stone of the monastery on Easter Monday of 1220. The curious name of the complex dates back to the fifteenth century when the church was entrusted to the Observant Friars Minor, called Zoccolanti, from which the name “della scarpa” derives. Today the complex is occupied by the Superintendency of Artistic, Historical and Demo-anthropological Heritage of Puglia and by a restoration laboratory.
La prima pietra
