Initially the friars settled in a church dedicated to the Madonna, located outside the city walls, where they are still reported in a document dated 1234, and in 1267 the construction of the current one began.

The construction of the new building proceeded very slowly, given that, despite the numerous donations, the church and the nearby convent could be said to be almost completed in 1298, when the Franciscans definitively abandoned the suburban complex which was ceded by them to the Carmelites.

[3] Almost all the funerary monuments were, following the dictates of the Council of Trent, were eliminated between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, while that of Baldus deg Ubaldis was placed in 1790 on the recommendation of Leopoldo Pollack inside one of the courtyards of the university.

Starting from the right you will find: I chapel: built between 1392 and 1398 by Giorgio Rossi, it was frescoed by Giovannino de 'Grassi, traces of these paintings can be found in the crossing of the nave.

VII chapel: it was built in 1387 by the Pavese aristocrat Filippo Landolfi, as reported by an epigraph placed outside the chapel, but was rearranged in the second half of the 16th century, the period to which the altar belongs, the altarpiece depicting the Transfiguration of Christ, the work of Gervasio Gatti, a pupil of Bernardino Gatti, while on the side there is a triptych depicting Christ taking leave of the Virgin with the Saints Francis and Louis of Tolosa, dating back to the early decades of the sixteenth century of uncertain attribution, for some scholars the work of Bernardino Gatti, for others from Macrino d'Alba.

In the left arm of the transept, above the side door, there is a large canvas by Francesco Barbieri, painted around the middle of the eighteenth century, depicting the triumph of the Franciscan order.

and precious baroque decorations, the altar, completed in 1777, was designed by Giulio Galliori and preserves an altarpiece depicting the Madonna, by Bernardino Ciceri, while the dome was frescoed by Pietro Antonio Magatti.

It contains an altarpiece depicting the Holy Family by Carlo Antonio Bianchi, while the entire left wall is occupied by an eighteenth-century stucco with Jesus among the doctors in the Temple.

The first four bays of the left aisle, devoid of chapels, host four large canvases on the wall depicting episodes from the life of the Saint Mark.