BASILICA SAN FRANCESCO

This splendid basilica is of such artistic and visual richness that it becomes almost indecent when one thinks of the spirit of poverty preached by St. Francis. The foundation stone was laid on July 17, 1228, two years after the death of the saint, and the consecration of this masterpiece of medieval architecture took place in 1253. The Franciscan Order protested against this glorification in opposition to the precepts of St. Francis. Elia, vicar of the order, found the solution in the form of a double church: the lower part, built around the holy crypt, commemorates the temperance of the saint, while the upper part is intended for the celebration of the offices.

The upper basilica, in French Gothic style, surprises and delights with the light that floods the turquoise blue ceiling and the murals by Giotto (1296) that illustrate episodes from the life of St. Francis. The 1997 earthquake destroyed part of these frescoes, which were magnificently restored in the summer of 2010. The pictorial cycle of the upper basilica takes up and amplifies the theme, already treated in the lower basilica, of the correspondence between the life of St. Francis and the Holy Scriptures.

As an ecumenical man, St. Francis considered all the people of the world as brothers. Tradition tells us that he prayed to the Crusades not to conquer new Christians, but to proclaim the love of Christ. This characteristic is depicted in particular in the fresco Encounter with the Sultan of Egypt by Giotto, which rests in the upper part of the basilica.

The lower part presents a more austere and much less luminous space, in Gothic-Romanesque style. It is dominated by the stone tomb containing the saint's remains and his relics. The transepts are decorated with superb frescoes by Pietro Lorenzetti, Giotto and Simone Martini. Above the central altar is the part of Giotto's work dedicated to the various preachings, which allows us to follow the life of absolute poverty and chastity of St. Francis.

Of course, the Basilica, a symbol of human fraternity, is one of the unmistakable features of a visit to Assisi. But the particularly noisy atmosphere of the place, its conversion into a real museum with its guards and the explanations given by guides aloud can disturb... It is closed to tourists during religious ceremonies, usually on Sundays (evacuated manu militari for those who dare to go there...).