Before Saint Francis there was Saint Rufinus: the martyr bishop of the third century, patron of Assisi, buried here since the year 412, over whom the people of Assisi quarrelled with their bishop who wanted to take him elsewhere, and won. The cathedral we see is the one begun in 1140 by Giovanni da Gubbio, with the finest façade of Umbrian Romanesque, three rose windows and three portals with lions and griffins, and inside the font where Francis was baptised in 1182 and Clare in 1193, and perhaps, tradition says, Frederick II as well. Clare, who lived in the house beside the bell tower, heard Francis preach here and decided to follow him. The interior was remade by Galeazzo Alessi in 1571, and the Romanesque remained only outside.
What to see
The façade, to be looked at for a long time: in the middle portal Christ enthroned between the sun and the moon, with the nursing Madonna and Saint Rufinus, and around it the arches with vine scrolls and monsters; in the side portals the peacocks at the fountain and the lions with the vase; above, the row of animals jutting out, the three rose windows with the symbols of the evangelists and the crouching telamones holding up the central one; at the top the gable with the empty arch where a mosaic never made was meant to go. The bell tower, which rests on a Roman cistern, has a clock with a single hand showing the twenty-four hours of Italian time, which ended at sunset.
Inside, on the right as you enter, the baptismal font, an ancient granite basin closed by a grille, where the whole Franciscan story began with water; then the chapels of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the statues of Francis and Clare by Giovanni and Amalia Dupré, the canvases by Dono Doni, the carved choir. Below, the crypt of Ugone's church, with the third-century Roman sarcophagus where Rufinus was laid, carved with Diana and Endymion, the medieval well and the remains of the Carolingian cloister; and the diocesan museum, with the polyptych by Niccolò Alunno, the detached frescoes by Puccio Capanna and the Madonna by the Master of Santa Chiara.
Visiting
The cathedral is on Piazza San Rufino, the highest and oldest part of Assisi, five minutes above the Piazza del Comune; free entry to the church with church hours, a single ticket for crypt and diocesan museum, with their own hours and a weekly closing day to check. Half an hour for the church, an hour with crypt and museum. The square is quiet even on crowded days.
Our editors' tip
Sit on the steps of the square at the end of the day, when the sun hits the façade full on and the griffins turn pink, and count the animals in the band above the portals: they are the bestiary a boy named Francis looked at on his way to Mass. Then go in, head straight for the font on the right and stop there a minute: it is the oldest and truest thing in Assisi, and there is no queue.