Una complessa architettura stratificata: la chiesa del convento di San Francesco a Cairo Montenotte (Savona)

The church of the Convento di San Francesco in Cairo Montenotte (Savona) is a complex layered architecture. Due to its state of ruin, it can be easily studied with the tools of building archaeology. The article, therefore, tries to illustrate the potential of this method of investigation, starting from a real case. Located a short distance from the town, along one of the roads that connected the Ligurian coast with the cities of Northern Italy, the convent of Cairo always remained in the original place of its foundation, which took place during the XIII century. The church, after being expanded and transformed at various times, was set on fire in 1799 and never rebuilt, due to the Napoleonic suppressions of religious Orders. The first part of the essay proposes an examination and a partial revision of the available indirect sources, in order to clarify what historical information can be referred to in the study of the building. In the second part presents how the historical interpretations advanced by scholars on the basis of these sources (and by directly observing the surviving structures) can be developed and better clarified through a detailed stratigraphic analysis and with the help of the archaeological dating methods available today, performing a sort of architectural autopsy.