San Luigi dei Francesi

San Luigi dei Francesi tickets: which one to buy

San Luigi is free, stands two minutes from Piazza Navona and holds three Caravaggios in the chapel they were painted for, which makes it one of the best hours available anywhere in Rome at no cost. The paintings are lit on a timer; a coin box speeds it up and is worth feeding. Guided tours that concentrate on Caravaggio take this church with Santa Maria del Popolo and Sant'Agostino, and that circuit, all three free, is the strongest art itinerary in the city centre.

General walking tours stop here briefly. The church is the national church of France in Rome and holds services in French; visiting stops during them and there is a long midday closure. Arrive early, because the chapel is small, the crowd in front of it is constant from mid-morning, and there is no queuing system. Groups larger than fifteen are asked to split up, which the staff enforce at the chapel rail.

Visiting San Luigi dei Francesi: what to see

Building began in 1518 for the French community and dragged on until 1589, finished with money from Catherine de' Medici; Giacomo della Porta designed the front and Domenico Fontana carried out the work. The dedication is to the Virgin, to Denis of Paris and to Louis IX. Everything else is a preamble to the last chapel on the left, decorated for Cardinal Matteo Contarelli, where Caravaggio painted three scenes from the life of Matthew between 1599 and 1602.

The calling of the apostle, with light cutting across a room of money-counters, and the martyrdom facing it were his first public commission and made his reputation overnight; the altarpiece between them, showing Matthew writing with an angel guiding his hand, is a second version, the first having been rejected as undignified. Elsewhere in the church Domenichino frescoed a chapel with scenes from the life of Cecilia. The second chapel on the right holds a painted altarpiece of the Assumption by Francesco Bassano.

San Luigi dei Francesi opening hours and the best time to go

Morning, as early as the doors allow, is the only way to see the Contarelli chapel without standing three deep. The church closes for a couple of hours at midday and again in the evening. Light is artificial in the chapel, so weather does not matter, but the rest of the church is dim on a winter afternoon. French national feasts and the fourteenth of July bring services and closures. The area around Piazza Navona is expensive and touristed;

the streets north towards the parliament have better and cheaper food. The Pantheon is five minutes east and now charges admission, so plan that separately. Allow forty minutes here, most of it in one chapel, and come back a second time if you are in Rome long enough, because the paintings change with the light. A French bookshop and the national institute stand on the same block and keep ordinary shop hours.