Basilica di San Francesco

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A vast single-nave Gothic barn on the Ravacciano hill, rebuilt after fire, suppression and a purist restoration — and still holding detached frescoes by both Lorenzetti brothers. Admission is free.

Status: Roman Catholic minor basilica; active parish and sanctuary served by the Conventual Franciscans. Information checked 5 August 2026 — reconfirm hours before visiting.

At a Glance

The Basilica di San Francesco stands on the eastern edge of Siena’s historic centre, on the slope of the Ravacciano hill in the Terzo di Camollia, dominating the broad Piazza San Francesco. It is one of the largest churches in the city, a vast single-nave Gothic preaching hall raised by the Franciscans and repeatedly rebuilt after fire, suppression and a purist 19th-century restoration. Today it is best known for housing the Sacred Particles (Sacre Particole) at the centre of Siena’s Eucharistic Miracle of 1730.

Location and Setting

The basilica occupies the north-eastern high ground of the walled city, on the Ravacciano slope in the Terzo di Camollia. When the Franciscans first built here the site lay just outside the city walls; a later enlargement of the walls brought church and convent inside the city. The church is reached through the Arco di San Francesco and from the centre along Via dei Rossi, off Banchi di Sopra.

Piazza San Francesco is a working civic space as much as a religious one. The former Franciscan convent that wraps around the church now belongs to the Università degli Studi di Siena, while the Oratorio di San Bernardino and the Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra stand on the right-hand side of the square.

• Terzo di Camollia, on the Ravacciano hill
• Reached via the Arco di San Francesco and Via dei Rossi from Banchi di Sopra
• Near Porta Ovile and, further down the hillside to the west, the Fontebranda spring

Did you know? Because the basilica sits on the frontier between two contrade, two of Siena’s districts hold patronage of chapels inside it, and the flags of the city’s contrade hang along the nave.

History

The Franciscans came to Siena in the years immediately after the death of St Francis of Assisi in 1226, and a first, smaller church rose on the site during the 13th century. The present, far larger Gothic church is traditionally dated from 1326, with work continuing through the 15th century.

The building’s later history is one of the most troubled in the city. A serious fire in 1655 gutted much of the interior and led to poorly integrated Baroque restorations; the present campanile was added in the 18th century. Following the Napoleonic-era suppression of religious orders the convent complex passed to the Archdiocese of Siena, which turned it into the archiepiscopal seminary; it was later acquired by the University of Siena. In the late 19th century the architect Giuseppe Partini stripped out the Baroque altars and reworked the interior in a purist neo-Gothic manner — a heavily criticised intervention that left the vast nave rather bare — and the medieval marble facade was replaced with the present brick front in the following decades.

• Franciscan arrival: 1226; first church in the 13th century
• Present Gothic church: traditionally from 1326, continuing through the 15th century
• Fire: 1655, followed by Baroque restorations
• Suppression: convent to the Archdiocese, later to the University of Siena
• Restoration: Partini interior in the late 19th century; brick facade completed in the early 20th century

Did you know? Very little of what the visitor sees is medieval fabric: after the 1655 fire and the 19th-century restoration only a handful of original elements survive in place.

Architecture

The basilica follows the Egyptian (Tau) cross plan favoured by the mendicant orders: a single very wide nave, roofed with open timber trusses, opening into a transept lined with chapels. Because of this plan there is no deep choir or apse — the central chapel simply takes the place of an apse among the transept chapels. The scheme derives from Cistercian Gothic and was designed to create a large, uncluttered space suited to preaching before big congregations.

The interior walls are banded in white and green marble in imitation of Siena Cathedral; this striped scheme once covered the exterior as well, before the rebuilding replaced the marble front with sober brick. The nave is lit by tall Gothic windows filled with late 19th-century stained glass, much of it remade after wartime damage. A surviving medieval side portal and the reused rose window are the principal old fabric on the exterior.

• Egyptian (Tau) cross plan; single wide nave with open timber-truss roof
• Transept with chapels flanking the central Cappella Maggiore
• Brick construction; interior walls banded in white and green marble
• Late 19th-century stained glass, substantially remade after the Second World War

Did you know? The church’s Tau-cross plan means it has no apse at all — where you would expect a rounded sanctuary there is simply a slightly larger flat-ended chapel, a deliberately austere solution typical of Franciscan preaching churches.

Art and Interior

Despite the losses of 1655 and the 19th-century clearance, the basilica retains works of the first rank. On the counter-facade are two large detached frescoes brought from the city gates: a Coronation of the Virgin by Sassetta, completed by Sano di Pietro, from the Porta Romana, and a Nativity by Il Sodoma from the Porta Pispini.

The church’s greatest treasures are the detached frescoes by the Lorenzetti brothers in the transept chapels, removed in the 19th century from the convent’s chapter house. In one chapel are two scenes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti: the Martyrdom of the Franciscans and St Louis of Toulouse taking leave of Pope Boniface VIII. In another is Pietro Lorenzetti’s Crucifixion. A companion fragment from the same cycle, a Risen Christ, is now in the Museo Diocesano next door.

Other notable works and monuments include:

• Fresco fragments and a Madonna and Child attributed to Andrea Vanni, blackened by the 1655 fire
• Marble busts of the parents of Pope Pius II by Antonio Federighi
• The funerary monument of the knight Cristoforo Felici by Urbano da Cortona
• A marble relief of the Assumption by Giovanni d’Agostino
• The Tolomei tomb, and a floor slab traditionally said to be that of Pia de’ Tolomei

Note on the Petroni tomb. The funerary monument of Cardinal Riccardo Petroni, carved by Tino di Camaino, is in Siena Cathedral, not in San Francesco. What San Francesco has is the Petroni Chapel portal in the cloister, attributed to Domenico d’Agostino. No work by Jacopo della Quercia is documented in this church.

Did you know? The Andrea Vanni Madonna and a wooden crucifix are among the very few flammable works in the church that survived the 1655 fire; the panel is still visibly darkened by smoke despite modern restoration.

The Miracle of the Sacred Particles

On the night of 14 August 1730, the eve of the Assumption, thieves stole a silver pyx containing 351 consecrated hosts from the basilica. Three days later, on 17 August, they were found in the offertory box of the nearby Collegiata di Santa Maria in Provenzano and carried back to San Francesco in a solemn procession. For hygienic reasons the hosts were not consumed but kept for adoration.

The extraordinary claim, repeatedly examined over nearly three centuries, is that the hosts have not decayed. A celebrated scientific examination was carried out in 1914; a fresh recognition was made a century later, in 2014. Pope John Paul II venerated the Particles during his visit to Siena in 1980. The Archdiocese of Siena states that 223 hosts survive. The Particles are kept within the basilica in two different transept chapels according to season, and are honoured by the contrade, by Corpus Domini processions, by a Eucharistic day each month and by the Settenario Eucaristico at the end of September.

• Theft: 14 August 1730; 351 consecrated hosts
• Recovery: 17 August 1730, at Santa Maria in Provenzano
• Surviving hosts: 223 (Archdiocese of Siena)

Did you know? The number of surviving hosts fell over the centuries partly because some were consumed during the very examinations meant to check whether they had spoiled.

The Oratorio di San Bernardino and Museo Diocesano

Immediately beside the basilica stands the Oratorio di San Bernardino, built in the later 15th century by a confraternity and re-dedicated after 1450 to St Bernardino of Siena. Since 1999 it has also housed the Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra, which surveys Sienese painting from the 13th to the 18th century.

The building has two levels. The lower oratory has a starry vault frescoed by Arcangelo Salimbeni and Francesco Vanni, with lunettes showing Stories of St Bernardino. The upper oratory — the heart of the complex — was frescoed in the early 16th century with Stories of the Virgin by three masters of the Sienese Renaissance: Il Sodoma, Domenico Beccafumi and Girolamo del Pacchia. The museum rooms hold, among much else, Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Madonna del Latte and a Risen Christ fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti from the convent of San Francesco.

Did you know? The upper oratory is one of the few places where you can see Sodoma, Beccafumi and Girolamo del Pacchia — three rivals of the early Sienese Cinquecento — working side by side on the walls of a single room.

Franciscan Connections to Siena

St Bernardino of Siena, the great itinerant preacher whose sunburst monogram of Christ (IHS) appears across the city, was closely tied to San Francesco, where tradition says he made his religious profession before preaching in the squares of Siena; he was canonised in 1450, only six years after his death. The church was also among the burial places of illustrious Sienese, including the architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

Did you know? The blazing IHS sun that you see all over Siena — on palace facades, doorways and the Palazzo Pubblico — was popularised by St Bernardino, who held up a tablet bearing the monogram at the end of his open-air sermons.

Practical Information

Checked 5 August 2026; opening hours and prices change frequently and should be reconfirmed before visiting.

Opening hours (basilica): not stated here. The basilica is an active parish church and the times in circulation come from listings rather than from the community itself; no official source we could reach publishes them. Check locally, or with the Franciscan community, before making a special journey.

Admission (basilica): Free.

Mass times: Published locally; reconfirm with the parish.

Oratorio di San Bernardino and Museo Diocesano d'Arte Sacra: open in the summer season only, typically 1 April to 31 October. Entry is by the OPA Si Pass, the combined ticket of the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena that also covers the Duomo complex, valid three consecutive days — the pass costs more during the weeks when the cathedral floor is uncovered. Free entry applies to under-7s, Siena residents, University of Siena students, accredited journalists, religious, and disabled visitors with a companion. We do not quote the fare here: the Opera's own ticket page was unreachable on 13 August 2026, and this is a price that has already moved once this year. Our Duomo guide carries the pass in context, and the Opera's site is the place to confirm it.

Accessibility: The basilica is at ground level from the piazza and broadly accessible to wheelchair users; the Oratorio di San Bernardino has an upper level reached by stairs.

Getting there — walking from Piazza del Campo: About 10 minutes. Leave the Campo by the north side, follow Banchi di Sopra to Piazza Tolomei, then take Via dei Rossi, which leads directly to Piazza San Francesco. From the Duomo, allow about 15 minutes on foot.

By car, ZTL and escalators: The historic centre is a restricted-traffic zone (ZTL) monitored by cameras; do not drive to the church without a permit. The Parcheggio San Francesco sits just below the basilica and connects to the square by escalators.

Best times to visit: Early morning or late afternoon, outside the midday closure; the Oratorio is only open April–October.

Dress code: Modest dress is expected (shoulders and knees covered).

Photography: Generally permitted without flash inside the basilica; the Oratorio/Museo may restrict photography — check on entry.

Sources: Arcidiocesi di Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino (arcidiocesi.siena.it); Opera della Metropolitana di Siena (operaduomo.siena.it); Comune di Siena (comune.siena.it); Visit Siena (visitsiena.it); Terre di Siena (terredisiena.it); Treccani; Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali (catalogo.beniculturali.it). Checked 5 August 2026.