The Church of San Francesco, located in the center of Lanciano, very close to Piazza del Plebiscito, was built in 1258 in Romanesque-Burgundian style on the site of the Church of San Legonziano (VII/VIII century). It was later rebuilt in Baroque forms around the mid-18th century and today, after restoration work in 2000, presents its simple and solemn 18th-century configuration. The façade is rectangular, made of squared stones. The bell tower is 31 meters tall and is the oldest in the city. The interior has a single nave with two side altars and beautiful paintings along the walls. The vault is adorned with beautiful biblical scenes. Noteworthy is a large biblical crucifix from the 18th century.
The church preserves the testimony of the oldest Eucharistic miracle in the Catholic world. Around the year 700, in the Church of San Legonziano, a Basilian monk doubted the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. However, during Mass, the consecrated host and wine were miraculously transformed into flesh and blood. First preserved by the Basilians, then by the Benedictines, and finally by the Conventual Franciscan Friars, the two relics are now kept in a silver monstrance of Neapolitan school (1713) and in a crystal ampulla, placed in the second tabernacle of the monumental altar, at the center of the presbytery. Today, as in the past, the relics consist of five drops of coagulated blood and the thin membrane of flesh resulting from the transformation of the host. Histological examinations, carried out with absolute scientific rigor and documented by a series of microscopic photographs in 1971 and 1981 at the Arezzo hospital, have proven that they are human blood and heart tissue with the same blood group: AB, and that they have never been treated for preservation.
The Sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle sees tens of thousands of faithful, from all over the world, pass through every year.
