The Church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, when in Bassano ruled the Ezzelini family, between 1158 and 1183.
According to an ancient tradition, it was wanted by Ezzelino II the Balbo, back from the Holy Land, to the satisfaction of a vow.
Like many churches of that time, this one was built at the gates of the city, to welcome pilgrims who came after long journeys, often tiring and dangerous.
Between 1287 and 1292, it was given to the Friars Minor Conventual, who dedicated it to San Francesco. It is a building ficio Romanesque-Gothic, Latin cross; the facade has a hut structure; the agile protiro with round arches is 1306, in the lunette are raffigurati Madonna, Child, Saint Anthony and Saint Francis, frescoed by Luca Martinelli in 1613.
To the right of the protiro, there is a fresco of the Annunciation represented according to the Valentinian heresy with the Child already formed flying from the Holy Spirit towards the breast of Mary. This fresco was made by Battista da Vicenza in the first decades of the '400.
The interior, with a single nave with transept, is covered by trusses, and the walls still have vague traces of fifteenth-century frescoes. On the main altar there is a copy of the wooden Crocifisso del Guariento, the original of which is kept in the adjacent Civic Museum.
