Consecrated in 1280, Saint Francis's is the oldest Gothic church in Dalmatia, also displaying fine Renaissance and Baroque work, and containing some very important artworks. The church was the venue for the signing of the Zadar peace treaty of 1358, when the Venetians ended centuries of attacks on the city and handed it to the protection of the Croatian-Hungarian King Ludwig I of Anjou. Particularly worth seeing is the wonderful choir in a local style known as Floral Gothic. The attached Franciscan monastery has a beautiful Renaissance cloister. Zadar's young people like to come here for Midnight Mass at Christmas. In the early part of 2011, during restoration works, a 400sqm floor space entirely covered in headstones from between the 14th and the 19th centuries was discovered.
Mass Sunday 08:30, 10:00, 20:00. Mass in foreign languages can be arranged by appointment.