Top of the World
The tombs were moved from inside the former Church of St. Francis, now a monumental ruin with no roof, to the sub-portico and reassembled there in 1659. As it appears today, however, the portico is the result of a neo-Gothic reconstruction, completed in 1850 by engineer Filippo Bandini. The Tomb of Paola Bianca Malatesti, who was the first wife of Pandolfo III, is adorned with statuettes, corbels, hanging arches and twisted colonnettes crowning the image of the deceased, lying on the lid of the very elaborate sarcophagus. It is a genuine masterpiece of late Gothic sculpture of Venetian import, by Maestro Filippo di Domenico. More modest is the Tomb of Bonetto da Castelfranco, commissioned by Sigismondo Malatesti to house the remains of his most faithful physician. On the opposite side of the portal dominates the Renaissance Tomb of Pandolfo III Malatesti wanted by his son Sigismondo, who most likely entrusted the design to Leon Battista Alberti. During recent restorations to which the entire monumental complex was subjected unexpectedly found the mummified body of Pandolfo III.
