Things to See in Assisi | 2 Monuments & Landmarks

All the monuments in Assisi

The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.

Basilica of San Francesco, Italy

Basilica di San Francesco d'AssisiUNESCOBasilica of San FrancescoGiotto's Life of Saint Francis, two churches stacked, the saint's tomb, Cimabue frescoesWork began on this double church in 1228, just two years after Francis of Assisi's death, built directly into the hillside so that a Lower and an Upper Church stack one above the other over his tomb in the crypt below. The Lower Church, dim and Romanesque, holds the saint's remains and an early cycle attributed to Cimabue; the Upper Church, brighter and among the first Gothic interiors in Italy, carries the famous 28-scene Life of Saint Francis cycle, long credited to Giotto and pivotal in teaching Italian painting how to tell a story across a wall rather than present isolated icons. Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers added further chapels and scenes as the decoration continued through the fourteenth century, filling nearly every surface until, as the saying goes, the walls ran out. A powerful 1997 earthquake collapsed sections of the Upper Church's vault, destroying some frescoes outright, though a major restoration since has returned the basilica to public view.Plan the visit

Basilica di Santa ChiaraUNESCOBasilica of Santa ChiaraSaint Clare's tomb, San Damiano crucifix, pink-striped Gothic facade, flying buttress profilePink and white stripes and great flying buttresses mark Clare's basilica across town from Francis's, built in the years after her death and consecrated in 1260, when her remains were carried inside to rest beneath the high altar. Her body lay hidden for six centuries, discovered intact in 1850 and moved into a visible shrine in the crypt in 1872, where pilgrims file past it today. The San Damiano crucifix hangs in a side chapel, the Byzantine-style icon that, according to Franciscan tradition, spoke to Francis in 1205 and told him to rebuild God's church, kept here by the order Clare founded after his death. The building's severe Gothic lines outside give way inside to a single luminous nave, closer in spirit to Clare's own austerity than to the frescoed grandeur of the basilica across the valley.

The Assisi guide

More within reach

Monuments a day trip away, elsewhere in Umbria.