The Church of San Francisco, two blocks north of Plaza de Bolívar, is one of the oldest surviving churches in Colombia, founded by Franciscan friars within a few decades of the city's establishment in the 1550s. The exterior is plain, almost austere — a single sloping façade of unadorned stone — but the interior carries some of the best colonial-era carved woodwork in Tunja, including a polychromed main altar and side chapels with original retables.
The adjoining cloister occasionally hosts exhibitions and is worth a look if open. The church is still in use for daily mass and visits outside service hours are appreciated. It pairs naturally with Santo Domingo just a block away.