Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free, including the Upper Church, the Lower Church and the crypt, and there is no ticket office. What you can pay for is guidance, and here it earns its price: the fresco cycles are the foundation of Italian painting and almost nothing is labelled. Official guides are booked through the Sacro Convento for a fixed fee per group, and independent guides work in Assisi at similar rates. Audio guides are rented at the information point.

Day trips from Rome take three hours each way and give you four or five hours in Assisi, enough for the basilica and the main street but not for the hermitage in the woods above. Tours from Florence and Perugia are shorter. If you drive, park below the walls and take the escalators up. Groups must book a slot at the Sacro Convento in advance, which is why the Upper Church sometimes fills with fifty people at once and empties five minutes later.

Visiting Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi: what to see

Francis died in 1226 and was canonised two years later; the basilica was begun immediately on a hill outside the walls where criminals had been executed, since renamed the Hill of Paradise. It is two churches stacked on one another. The Lower Church is dim, low-vaulted and heavy with frescoes by Cimabue, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti, and beneath it the crypt holds the saint's stone tomb, found in 1818 after five centuries hidden.

The Upper Church is the opposite: tall, light, early Gothic, with a cycle of 28 scenes from the life of Francis running round the nave at eye level, traditionally given to Giotto and painted around 1295. That cycle is where Western painting learned to show a story as something happening to real people in real space. The earthquake of 1997 brought down part of the vault, killing four; the restoration reassembled 300,000 fragments and is itself part of the story.

Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi opening hours and the best time to go

Both churches open early and close at dusk, with the Lower Church opening first and the Upper Church closing earlier in winter. Pilgrim groups arrive through the morning, and the Upper Church can be loud despite the stewards' constant requests for silence; the first hour and the last are much better. The feast of St Francis on 4 October fills the town. Assisi in August is hot and crowded; spring and late autumn are ideal.

Dress code is strictly enforced at the door: knees and shoulders covered, no exceptions, and stewards turn people away. Photography is completely forbidden inside both churches. Allow ninety minutes for the basilica, half a day for Assisi, and if you have longer, walk or drive up to the Eremo delle Carceri, the hermitage in the woods where Francis withdrew, four kilometres above the town. Assisi is on a hillside and the basilica sits at its lowest western end, so the walk back up to the main square takes fifteen minutes.