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The Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi

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Origin 1228 to 1253

The burial church of Francis of Assisi, built into the side of the hill on two levels with the tomb itself in a crypt below both. A Franciscan community lives and prays here, so the fresco cycles that make it a founding monument of Western painting are the decoration of a working friary rather than the contents of a gallery. Assisi is also where the town and the order have made a particular kind of hospitality their business: the interfaith World Day of Prayer for Peace convened here in 1986 has been repeated since, and the name now attaches to interreligious encounter as much as to a medieval saint.

Facts
Site
Type of Site
Church, cathedral or chapel 1
Type of Site
Tomb or grave of a holy figure 1
Type of Site Detail
Francis's remains were deliberately hidden after his 1230 burial to protect them from the relic theft that threatened many medieval saints' tombs, and their exact location within the crypt was lost; they were only rediscovered in December 1818 after a fifty-two day excavation authorized by Pope Pius VII, and the crypt visible to visitors today was built around that rediscovered tomb in the following century. 1
Pilgrimage
Major pilgrimage destination today 1
Pilgrimage to the tomb of Francis, and the Pardon of Assisi each August
History
Historical Note
The basilica at Assisi was built shortly after the death of Francis of Assisi to house his remains, and its interior became one of the most significant sites of early Franciscan devotional art. 1
Geography
Latitude
43.1 degrees north 3
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; this marks the site's general location for a map, not a survey-grade or precise boundary measurement.
Longitude
12.6 degrees east 3
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; this marks the site's general location for a map, not a survey-grade or precise boundary measurement.
Origins
Origin Period
1228 to 1253 1
Country
Italy 1
Region
Italy 1
Status
Status Today
In active religious use 1
UNESCO World Heritage
Inscribed on the World Heritage List 2
Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and Other Franciscan Sites, inscribed 2000
Attributions
Tradition
Christian 1
Location
Location of The Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Learn More
The Tomb of the Poor Man of Assisi, Painted by the Masters

The Basilica of St Francis in Assisi is the burial church of Francis, one of the most beloved saints of Christianity, and a founding monument of Western painting that is also a working friary.

Francis and the basilica

Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226 and was canonised within two years, renounced wealth to live in radical poverty and founded the Franciscan order; his devotion to the poor, to creation and to the humanity of Christ reshaped Western Christianity. The basilica was begun immediately after his canonisation and built into the side of the hill on two levels, the Lower and Upper Churches, with his tomb in a crypt below both. That a saint of poverty is honoured by so grand a church is a tension the Franciscan tradition has felt from the beginning.

The frescoes

The walls of the two churches carry fresco cycles by the greatest painters of the age, including work associated with Cimabue and Giotto, above all the celebrated cycle of the life of St Francis in the Upper Church. These paintings are a turning point in the history of European art, in the move toward naturalism and human feeling, and they are the decoration of a living friary rather than the contents of a gallery; a Franciscan community lives and prays here.

Assisi and peace

Assisi has made a particular kind of hospitality its work. The interfaith World Day of Prayer for Peace, convened here in 1986 and repeated since, has attached the name of the town to interreligious encounter as much as to the medieval saint. Damaged by an earthquake in 1997 and carefully restored, the basilica remains a major place of pilgrimage and a World Heritage site, and Francis is a patron saint of Italy and of ecology.

The 1997 Collapse

In 1997 an earthquake killed people inside the basilica while they were working to protect it, part of a disaster that also fractured centuries-old frescoes into thousands of fragments.

The 1997 collapse

A series of earthquakes struck Umbria in September 1997, and an aftershock caused a section of the basilica's vaulted ceiling to collapse while restoration officials and religious personnel were inside inspecting earlier damage, killing four people, including two Franciscan friars and two heritage officials, and destroying large sections of fresco, some attributed to the workshop of Cimabue.

Rebuilding from fragments

Restorers spent years afterward piecing together shattered fresco fragments using photographic records and computer-assisted matching to reconstruct as much of the damaged decoration as possible, a painstaking recovery effort that returned much, though not all, of the basilica's ceiling to public view.

A movement built on giving everything away

Beyond the building's artistic and structural history, Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan order on a radical commitment to poverty, renouncing his family's wealth and instructing his followers to own nothing individually, a theological stance that shaped the order's identity so thoroughly that later disputes within Franciscan history frequently centred on exactly how strictly that original poverty commitment should still be interpreted.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Basilica, Sacred Architecture
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Francis of Assisi, Figures
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Belongs to Tradition

Christianity, Religions
Source UNESCO World Heritage ListUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor), Organizations
Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Contained In

Italy, Countries
Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Element Of

Roman Catholicism, Denominations

The basilica holds the tomb of Francis and is the mother church of the Franciscan order.

Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005from the site's own catalogue recordView the Source
2. UNESCO World Heritage List
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage CentreAssisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and Other Franciscan SitesView the Source
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
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