On July 16, 1228, exactly one day after the canonization of Saint Francis, Pope Gregory IX and Friar Elias of Cortona laid the foundation stone of this monumental complex. Designated by the Pope as a specialis ecclesia and the Caput et Mater (Head and Mother) of the Minorite Order, the sanctuary was erected on the "Collis inferni", a hill at the north-western edge of the walled city previously reserved for burying outlaws. Following a land donation by Simone di Pucciarello, the site was renamed "Collis paradisi". Although its sheer scale marked a stark departure from the strict Franciscan rule of poverty, the papacy and the Order envisioned the building as a vital pedagogical tool—a Biblia pauperum, or Bible for the poor, designed to educate the illiterate through vast fresco cycles—and as a shrine capable of accommodating massive crowds of pilgrims. Consecrated on May 25, 1253, by Pope Innocent IV, the complex remains a non-extraterritorial property of the Holy See and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.
What to see
The structure played a pivotal role in introducing Gothic architecture to Italy, fusing the needs of a major pilgrimage destination with the layout of a palatine chapel. It draws direct inspiration from French models like the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, featuring two superimposed, single-nave churches. The Lower Basilica, completed around 1230, houses the mortal remains of Saint Francis, which were transferred here from the church of San Giorgio. Hidden for centuries to prevent theft, the body was only rediscovered in 1818 and is now kept in a sarcophagus beneath the high altar. Initially built with a simple, rectangular Romanesque plan, the lower church was expanded under Friar Elias with a transept, an apse, and ribbed cross vaults. It also holds the tombs of John of Brienne (King of Jerusalem and Latin Emperor of Constantinople), Blasco Fernandez (Duke of Spoleto) and his son Garcia, the Roman noblewoman Jacopa dei Settesoli, and four of Francis's earliest companions: Leone, Rufino, Masseo, and Angelo. Fresco decoration began in the transept around 1253 with the Maestro di San Francesco, followed by Cimabue, who painted his Maestà here around 1278.
The Upper Basilica was conceived as a monastic hall and preaching space. Under the English Minister General Haimo of Faversham in 1241, transalpine builders created an innovative internal "Gothic cage" with a ribbed skeleton that contrasts sharply with the Romanesque exterior walls and their heavy buttresses. Following his work in the lower church, Cimabue was commissioned to decorate the upper choir and transept alongside the Maestro Oltremontano and the Maestro della Cattura; unfortunately, these works have suffered severe degradation due to original technical errors. By the early 1290s, Roman artists such as Jacopo Torriti and the pioneering Maestro di Isacco were painting Old and New Testament narratives on the upper nave vaults and registers. The structure reached its definitive exterior form with the addition of the Chapel of Saint Catherine in 1367.
Visiting
Custodianship of the basilica and the adjoining Sacred Convent has belonged perpetually to the Conventual Franciscan Friars. Elevated to a Papal Basilica in 2006, the complex offers access to both the somber crypt containing the saint's tomb and the soaring upper church. These spaces bear the historical weight of thirteenth-century sermons by Saint Bonaventure—who preached here sixteen times—and later addresses by Saint Bernardino of Siena. The adjoining convent also served as the residence of Saint Joseph of Cupertino in the seventeenth century. Visitors walk through a site that survived multiple lootings of its treasury—by Muzio di Francesco in 1320, the Baglioni in 1492, Jacopo Fiumi in 1497, and French troops in 1798. Following periods of nineteenth-century suppression, the complex fully returned to the Church in 1927 and was declared a National Sanctuary in 1939.
Our editors' tip
Pay close attention to the striking architectural duality of the Upper Basilica: the heavy, fortress-like Romanesque exterior with its robust pillars and buttresses was specifically engineered to counteract the outward thrust of the soaring Gothic ribbed vaults located inside.