Basilica e convento di San Francesco Siena

ORARI DI APERTURA E VISITA:

Daily: 7:30 am - 12:00 pm; 3:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Celebrations:
Saturday and Holiday Eve: 6:00 pm
Sunday and Holidays: 10:00 am; 11:15 am; 6:00 pm

The Basilica of San Francesco is among the most important churches in Siena and is located in the square of the same name.

The church was built around 1228-1255 and subsequently enlarged between the 14th and 15th centuries, with interventions that transformed the original Romanesque building into the immense Gothic structure we see today.

The building has an Egyptian cross plan with a single nave covered by trussed beams and cross-vaulted chapels in the transept, following the simplified architectural model of the mendicant orders, which aimed to create a spacious space extremely suitable for preaching to a large crowd of faithful.

Following a fire in 1655, the interior has changed significantly from its predecessor, and today appears almost unadorned, despite the recent relocation of the paintings originally located in the Baroque altars demolished in the 19th century.

The gabled façade, flanked by the bell tower erected in 1763, also dates back to a neo-Gothic restoration. Traces of the 13th-century marble decoration and the 15th-century portal were removed, replacing the latter with the current cusped portal and decorating the façade with statues.

Inside, the counterfaçade preserves the remains of two 14th-century tombs, and above them are two large, fragmentary frescoes removed from Porta Romana and Porta Pispini, respectively. Near the counterfaçade is the 15th-century portal by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, removed from the façade.

On the left side of the nave is a Crucifixion by Girolamo di Benvenuto, followed by six recently reinstated altarpieces.

At the beginning of the right side of the nave is a lunette with a Visitation from the early 15th century, followed by three paintings: the Sermon of Saint James by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini, the Nativity of the Virgin by Giovan Battista Ramacciotti, and the Raising of Lazarus by Alessandro Casolani and Vincenzo Rustici.

After passing the fragmentary 14th-century tomb of the Tolomei family, we reach the right transept, where the chapel is located. Here, during the winter, the "Sacred Particles" are venerated. These hosts have remained miraculously incorrupt since August 14, 1730, the day the ciborium containing them was stolen; they were later found in the collegiate church of Provenzano.

The chapel is decorated on the left with a fake polyptych of the Madonna and Child with Saints frescoed by Lippo di Vanni.

On the back wall of the right transept is a marble Saint Francis from the early 14th century, originally from the church's façade.

After passing the central chapel, which features a high altar designed by Leopoldo Maccari and Giuseppe Partini, you enter the left transept, where the apse chapels continue.

The next room houses the Madonna and Child frescoed by Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio.

The left transept includes two more chapels, one of which houses the "Sacred Particles" during the summer.

The original architectural features of this place, designed by Lorenzo di Mariano, were restored in the 19th century.