Basilica of San Francesco
Where is St. Francis of Assisi buried?
Who painted the frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco?
What happened to the Basilica of San Francesco in the 1997 earthquake?
Basilica of San Francesco, Franciscan monastery and church in Assisi, Italy, the burial place of St. Francis of Assisi, and one of the most important Christian pilgrimage sites in Italy. Begun shortly after St. Francis’s canonization in 1228 and completed in 1253, the basilica became both the spiritual center of the Franciscan order and an important landmark in the development of Italian art and architecture. Constructed into a hill, the unusual basilica consists of two churches, the upper church and the lower church, built one above the other. Together with other Franciscan sites in Assisi, including the adjoining Sacro Convento (Sacred Convent), the vast complex was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.
History
Francis died in 1226 and was initially buried in the Church of San Giorgio in Assisi. He was canonized less than two years later by his friend and former protector Pope Gregory IX, who immediately thereafter laid the foundation stone for a new church in Assisi to serve as Francis’s permanent burial place. Construction was overseen by Brother Elias, one of Francis’s early followers, and the work proceeded remarkably quickly. By May 1230 the lower church was sufficiently complete and Francis’s remains were transferred there. Pope Innocent IV consecrated both churches of the basilica in 1253.
It is thought that St. Francis’s burial place within the lower church was concealed to prevent his relics from being stolen and dispersed. In 1818 his tomb was rediscovered beneath the high altar, and a crypt was subsequently constructed to make the burial site accessible to pilgrims. Today his simple stone sarcophagus remains the focal point of the crypt.
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The darker, more intimate lower church serves principally as the saint’s shrine and tomb, while the more spacious and luminous upper church accommodates preaching and large religious ceremonies. Notable ceremonies and events held at the site include the 1253 canonization of St. Stanislaus of Kraków, the conclusion of the 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace held by Pope John Paul II, and the 2020 beatification of Carlo Acutis.
Frescoes
As devotion to St. Francis spread across medieval Europe, the basilica became the focus of an ambitious program of artistic decoration, and leading Italian masters were brought in to decorate its churches. The lower church has frescoes by Giunta Pisano, Cimabue, Giotto and his workshop, Pietro Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, and Andrea da Bologna. The upper church has 28 frescoes representing stories of the life of St. Francis, traditionally attributed to Giotto and his followers, as well as wall paintings of Old and New Testament scenes, the doctors of the Church, and the Evangelists by Cimabue, Pietro Cavallini, and Jacopo Torriti.
Earthquake and restoration
On September 26, 1997, a major earthquake shattered sections of the vaulted ceiling of the upper church, raining tons of debris into the sanctuary and fragmenting the frescoes into hundreds of thousands of pieces, and four people were killed in the church. The basilica reopened in 1999 after an enormous reconstruction effort, and restoration of the damaged frescoes continued for years. The earthquake created about 300,000 recoverable fresco fragments, of which roughly 220,000 were eventually put back into place; the remaining fragments were carefully cataloged and stored. Some works could not be fully reconstructed, most notably Cimabue’s fresco of St. Matthew.
Additional historical and art conservation work at the basilica has continued into the 21st century, including the restoration of Simone Martini’s Chapel of St. Martin of Tours, completed in 2023, and Cimabue’s Maestà of Assisi, unveiled after a restoration in 2024. In preparation for the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’s death in 2026, the basilica also undertook a comprehensive digital documentation project intended to aid future study and conservation.
