On the hill of San Cristoforo, which divides the old part of Monterosso from the new one of Fegina, there are the Capuchin convent and the church of San Francesco. The complex can be reached from both sides via a staircase that joins near the statue of San Francesco in front of the Aurora Tower. Built starting in 1619, the first stone was laid on 8 October, thanks to the help of the Genoese nobleman Gian Fabio Squarciafico, who later became Father Francesco M. da Genova. The construction lasted five years. After the first two very quiet centuries, with the arrival of Napoleon, the friars were expelled in 1810 with the suppression of the orders, becoming in several years the seat of a garrison, hospital and warehouse. In 1894 Don Giuseppe Policardi, a local priest, bought the structure, restored it and donated it to the Capuchins.
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, the complex was heavily damaged. For the 2000 Jubilee, the last renovation took place, since 2006 the church of San Francesco can be visited again.
The church dedicated to San Francesco is very impressive, with a single nave surrounded by wooden altars. Inside there is a painting depicting the Crucifixion, attributed to Van Dick, a Martyrdom of the Capuchin Saints in the counter-façade of the 18th century, a penitent San Girolamo del Cambiaso, a Madonna degli Angeli of 1896 by Oldoino Multedo and a painting by Giuseppe Palmieri representing the Immaculate Conception with Saints Fedele and Felice.
On the right of the church you enter the suggestive cemetery, where the Doria castle once stood. Here, in the chapel of San Cristoforo, there is a seventeenth-century painting depicting San Cristoforo carrying the Child Jesus on his shoulders. In the background you can admire an ancient view of the old village.