It was founded in 1221, less than a century after Bolzano was refounded as a trading centre on the important Brenner route connecting the March of Verona and Italy with the Holy Roman Empire north of The Alps.

A legend survives that Saint Francis, while still young, accompanied his cloth merchant father, Pietro Bernardone, on a business trip to Bolzano.

The very first friary was built around a yard made available by the Bishop of Brixen directly outside the city walls on the north side of Bolzano, incorporating the Church of Saints Ingenuinus and Erhard.

[4] In 1780 the Empress Maria Theresa inaugurated the city's Franciscan Gymnasium (school) for which the friary was mandated to provide the teaching and leadership.

[5] During the time of Bavarian occupation, in 1810, the friary found itself abolished and some of its lands forfeit, shortly after which the buildings were used as a military barracks till 1813.

[6] As part of the ongoing negotiations to resolve the cultural and linguistic tensions that plagued the South Tyrol during the decades that followed the transfer of this German-speaking region to Italy (and the ensuing attempts under Benito Mussolini to eliminate German elements), an agreement was reached whereby in 2007, for church administration purposes, the Franciscan friary in Bolzano was transferred to the church's Austrian Province, under the direction of Salzburg.

The Gothic church itself comprises a three-aisled nave and a choir section with a polygonal plan, under a ribbed arched roof, all primarily constructed out of pink sandstone.

Although the instrument takes its principal inspiration from organs of the Baroque period, notably those of Gottfried Silbermann, the availability of a range of reeds makes it suitable for 19th century music as well, especially that of the French Romantic composers.