Religious Holy City - Assisi

St. Francis Cathedral Sacro Convento di San Francesco d'Assisi 6:00-20:00 Wednesday 6:00-18:45 Tour 1-2 hours free Divided into upper and lower halls Tour from bottom to top The interesting thing about the St. Francis Basilica is that it is not "one" church, but two churches, upper and lower. The colored glass of the lower church adds some vitality to this solemn church. The central altar has four frescoes created by masters in the 14th century, corresponding to the four parables of St. Francis. The upper church was built later than the lower one, with 28 frescoes around the walls. These frescoes depict scenes from the "New Testament" and "I Day Covenant", born in the Renaissance, and have a profound impact on the development of Western art. The top of the upper church collapsed in an earthquake in 1997, and it took 2 years to repair. You can still see where the old and new meet. The murals on the top of the church are beautiful, most of them are from Giotto and his mentor Cimabue. The St. Francis Church is the burial place of St. Francis of Assisi and the mother church of the Catholic Franciscan Order. It is listed as a World Cultural Heritage and is also an important Catholic pilgrimage site in Italy; now, this mountain is called Paradise Mountain.