After less than a century from the first historical proof of the existence of the Franciscan order in Transylvania, Franciscan monks arrived in Tîrgu-Mureș. The monastery complex they built here was the fourth in Transylvania after those of Bistrița, Sibiu and Oraștie. Its building took an entire century, from the middle of the 14th century until the middle of the 15th and includes the monastery building, an older chapel, the church and the steeple. As far as the architectural style is concerned, these buildings belong to the late Gothic, both structurally and aesthetically. There were three building periods: 1350 – 1370 - when the chapel and monastery were built, 1370 – 1400 –the erection of the church choir and 1400 – 1450 – the last period during which the church and steeple were finalized. The plan of the chapel was simple, made up of a nave and a polygonal altar. The cross vaults on ogives are a specific Gothic architectural element, as well as the exterior buttress meant to enhance the resistance of the walls. The monastery building included the sacristy, the dining hall and the dormitory and was connected to the altar through a narrow corridor. The sacristy, which is used today as conference hall or for organ classes, maintains the Gothic structure of the vaults and the framing of the entrance door. The choir of the Franciscan church is the true masterpiece of the Gothic complex of Tîrgu-Mureș. It is mentioned in an official document issued by Pope Boniface IX in 1400 which means that at that time it had already been erected.  Its structure is made up of a 20 meter long and 9 meter wide trave which ends with a pentagonal apse in its Eastern side.  The shape of the vaults is a very good example of typical Gothic architectural structure based on the ogival arc. This type of covering structure was self-imposed for the grandiose churches of the Middle Ages, where the significant weight of the construction materials used for the walls and for the roof needed to be neutralized. The ogival arch made up of profiled stone ribs acts as a strong support structure for the weight of the vault and reduces its thrust on the exterior walls. The vault of the church”™s choir is divided into four registers. For the first three, the ogival arches form cross vaults, whereas in the fourth register, which covers the pentagonal apse, the arches make up a stellar vault.  Besides being practical, this ogival structure has a highly decorative effect due to the pear-shaped profiles of the ogives, the sculpted keystones and the consoles lined up against the walls at the points of origin of the vaults. The bipartite windows with their broken arch openings and with the moldings that decorate the top area are also a combination of functional and decorative elements. Four of the windows are in the apse area, whereas the other three are placed on the wall to the right of the choir. The wall on the left is attached to the tower and the monastery building and thus has no windows. The shapes and combination of the decorative stone on the windows differ based on the period during which they were made. It thus becomes obvious that these were finalized later than the choir which took 30 years to erect.     The church was finalized between 1400 and 1450.  It has a hall-type plan, which means there is only one nave. The size of the construction – much larger than the city needed at that time - can only be explained by the support of the central authorities to create a place of pilgrimage.  Themonumentality of the Franciscan church of Tîrgu-Mureș places it among the most representative hall-type churches of Transylvania, such as those of Turda, Cluj-Napoca or Mediaș, also built by Franciscan monks. The church's walls are reinforced with buttresses. Except for the two portals on the Western and Southern facades, there are no significant decorations on the outside. The main portal, on the West side, is decorated with a succession of ever ampler broken arches which lead to an expansion of the entrance necessary due to the thickness of the walls. The embrasure of the entrance has a profile made up of tori and scotia. The gate-posts are connected to the arch-vault by a decorative frieze of sculpted grape clusters and vine leaves. The Southern portal is smaller and less adorned that the Western one. The walls are not as wide, there are less tori and scotia, and the decorative frieze is made up of oak leaf motifs. The remainders of a mural painting can be seen on the plaster of the gable. The broken arch opening was later walled up. The current appearance of the inside of the church is the result of numerous changes done in time. Close to the entrance there is a balcony supported by arches on posts. The slightly curved ceiling, reinforced by four pairs of double arches and decorated with stucco, is the result of remodeling works performed in 1790 by Anton Türk, one of the most famous Transylvanian architects of the Baroque period. The church may have been originally decorated with frescos, as traces of mural paintings were found inside.  The almost complete disappearance of these paintings is due to the fact that the church became the property of reformed believers in 1557. The religious reform required for churches to have no paintings, statues or religious frescos. The last one to be built was the 50 meter high, 4 level steeple-tower . The top level ,where the bells are,  has broken arch openings on all four sides. The pointed roof of the tower has four smaller towers in each corner.  The tower may have replaced part of the monastery building, which was demolished to make place for it. 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