Basilica di San Francesco Assisi: Where Giotto Changed Painting and Francis Changed the Church
Autore: La Redazione di www.tourleaderpro.com
Last updated: April 2026.
The Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi is two churches stacked vertically — the Upper Basilica (Basilica Superiore) with Giotto's 28-panel fresco cycle of the life of Saint Francis on the nave walls, and the Lower Basilica (Basilica Inferiore) below it with Cimabue's Byzantine apse frescoes, Simone Martini's extraordinary Gothic cycle in the Chapel of Saint Martin, and the crypt with Francis's tomb. The building was begun in 1228, two years after Francis died and two years after his canonization — the fastest construction response to a saint's death in medieval Italy. Pope Gregory IX laid the foundation stone himself; the dual-church plan reflects both the liturgical hierarchy (the Lower Basilica for regular use and pilgrimage, the Upper Basilica for major celebrations) and the need to create, immediately, a monument proportional to the new saint's already enormous popular following.
The Giotto cycle in the Upper Basilica — painted approximately 1296-1300, though the attribution to Giotto himself rather than his workshop has been debated since at least the nineteenth century — is the defining demonstration of what Giotto's revolution in painting meant at the scale of a complete narrative program. Twenty-eight scenes from Bonaventura da Bagnoregio's Life of Saint Francis, arranged in a continuous horizontal band around the nave, using the spatial and psychological innovations Giotto had developed in Padova (the Scrovegni Chapel frescoes are slightly later, 1305) to produce a narrative in paint that was immediately accessible to the pilgrims who came to venerate Francis's tomb below.
The Giotto Cycle: Scene by Scene
The 28 scenes move counterclockwise around the nave, beginning with the Homage of the Simple Man (a citizen of Assisi spreads his cloak before the young Francis, prophesying his sanctity) and ending with the Apparition to Gregory IX and the Verification of the Stigmata. The key scenes for understanding Giotto's innovation: the Sermon to the Birds (Francis preaching to birds, the figures arranged in a specific landscape setting rather than a generic gold ground); the Death of the Knight of Celano (a dinner party interrupted by death, the table setting and the architecture of the room rendered with spatial specificity); and the Miracle of the Spring (Francis kneeling to pray, water appearing from the rock — the rock painted as a specific geological formation rather than a symbolic shape).
Each scene demonstrates the principle that distinguishes Giotto from the Byzantine tradition he inherited: the world the figures inhabit is the same world the viewer inhabits, continuous rather than symbolic, specific rather than generic. The architecture in the backgrounds is Romanesque and Gothic Umbrian architecture — recognizable to the Assisi pilgrims — not generic symbolic structures. The figures respond to each other and to events in ways that imply off-screen action and psychological states. This is the beginning of the tradition that leads through Masaccio and Raphael to the entire European painting tradition.
The Lower Basilica and the Tomb
The Lower Basilica (entered from the main piazza, below the Upper Basilica) is architecturally earlier and visually denser — the low cross-vaulted nave, the lateral chapels added progressively through the fourteenth century, and the concentration of fresco programs from multiple campaigns creates an overwhelmingly rich visual environment. Cimabue's apse frescoes (1277-1280) are damaged but partially visible — the same Byzantine-transitional painter whose Madonna was described by Dante as surpassed by Giotto. Simone Martini's Chapel of Saint Martin (c. 1315-1319) has the most complete and best-preserved Gothic fresco cycle in the basilica — the scenes from Martin's life combining the linear elegance of International Gothic with a specific narrative intelligence.
The tomb of Francis is in the crypt below the Lower Basilica, discovered in 1818 (it had been hidden in 1442 to prevent theft of the relics). The simple stone sarcophagus, the kneeling space, and the specific silence of the crypt — contrasting with the tourist noise above — create a genuinely powerful devotional environment regardless of the visitor's own religious position.
Q&A: Basilica di San Francesco Assisi
Is the Basilica San Francesco free to visit?
Yes — the basilica is free, though donations are expected and appropriate. The Upper and Lower Basilicas and the crypt are accessible without admission charge. Photography without flash is generally permitted in the Upper Basilica; the Lower Basilica has variable policies depending on the specific section. Audio guides are available for rent at the entrance.
How do I get to Assisi?
By train from Perugia: approximately 25 minutes on the regional FC Umbro-Casentinese line. By train from Florence: approximately 2 hours via Terontola. By car: A1 motorway to Valdichiana exit, then SS75 to Assisi, approximately 180 km from Florence. The Assisi train station is in the valley below the town (Santa Maria degli Angeli); a bus connects station to town center, or taxi. The walk from the basilica down to the station is approximately 2 km downhill.
How long does a visit to the Basilica di San Francesco take?
Two to three hours for both basilicas, the crypt, and the adjacent Sacro Convento courtyard. The Upper Basilica requires the most time for the Giotto cycle — each of the 28 panels deserves individual attention, and rushing through them defeats the purpose. Arrive at opening (8am) when the light in the Upper Basilica is optimal and the basilica is least crowded.
What Nobody Tells You About Assisi and the Basilica
The town of Assisi above the basilica — the medieval streets, the Rocca Maggiore fortress on the hill, the church of Santa Chiara (Clare, Francis's follower, buried here) — is significantly less visited than the basilica and significantly more atmospheric. Walking the town after the basilica visit, particularly in the late afternoon when the day-trippers have left, gives access to a medieval Umbrian hill town in its authentic form. The view from the Rocca Maggiore over the Umbrian valley below is among the finest in central Italy.
Internal Links
- Galleria Nazionale Umbria Perugia: Francis's Artistic Context
- Spoleto: Umbrian Culture Near Assisi
- Giotto: The Assisi Cycle in the History of Art
- Padova Scrovegni: Giotto's Later and More Complete Work
- Norcia and the Valnerina: Umbrian Truffle Country
- Umbrian Thermal Towns Near Assisi
- Assisi at Easter: The Umbrian Holy Week