Description of the attraction
San Francesco is a church in Siena, built in 1228-1255 on the site of a former Franciscan temple and enlarged in the 14-15th centuries. Its original Romanesque appearance was redesigned in the Gothic style - this is how we see the church today.
The basilica was built in the form of an Egyptian cross with a nave and transept in accordance with the canons of architecture of the mendicant orders, which needed a lot of space in order to accommodate the crowds of believers. The current decoration of the church looks rather moderate - as a result of the fire in 1655, which destroyed most of the building, and the restorations of 1885-1892, many luxurious Baroque altars were irretrievably lost. Fortunately, some of the old paintings on the walls have survived. The neo-Gothic façade was completed at the beginning of the 20th century, and the adjacent bell tower in 1763. The marble medieval decorations and portal of the 15th century that once adorned the façade have been relocated.
Inside, you can see fragments of two 14th-century tombs and two huge frescoes that were once located on the former city gates of Porta Romana and Porta Pispini. Some of the works of art kept in the church include Jacopo Zucchi's Madonna and Child with Saints, the expressive Crucifixion by Pietro Lorenzetti and a fresco by his brother Ambrogio, The Prayer of St. James by Giuseppe Nicola Nazini and The Martyrdom of St. Martin by Pietro da Cortona … In the right transept is a 14th century marble statue of Saint Francis of Assisi that once adorned the ancient façade.
