The Convent of Santa Croce stands on the place where Saint Francis of Assisi, passing through Villa Verucchio on the occasion of his trip to S. Leo in the year 1213, according to tradition he planted the stick he supported during the journey around the which roots and leaves were born: the gigantic cypress over seven centuries old which is still visible in the cloister.
The convent is traced back to the date of the death of St. Francis, 1226, and is considered the oldest Franciscan building in Romagna. A chapel was built in the place where the cell of San Francesco was located.
The church has a beautiful fourteenth-century portal. The vast neoclassical interior features a refined Renaissance choir in inlaid wood. On the left wall there is a fresco depicting the Crucifixion belonging to the Giotto school of Rimini (first half of the 14th century). Above the presbytery hangs a wooden crucifix from the Giuntesque school from the end of the 13th century. Also valuable is the sixteenth-century statue of the Madonna delle Grazie, crowned in 1637 but venerated in the church for over a century.