Basilica di San Francesco
Church
Basilica di San Francesco
A piece of French Gothic in Italy
The Franciscan order originally lived in the shadows of other orders. Interest skyrocketed, however, when its founder Francis of Assisi visited the city in 1222. Pope Gregory IX urged local authorities to grant to order some land on which today’s basilica was eventually built. Even though the façade is clearly Romanesque, the interior is one of the prime examples for French Gothic architecture in Italy. Its subdivision even brings Notre Dame to mind. Characteristic for this architectural style: the ambulatory with radical chapels and supporting arches. Amongst others, antipope Alexander V, who died in Bologna, rests in a sarcophagus richly adorned by Niccolò di Piero Lamberti inside Basilica di San Francesco.
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