Basilica of San Francesco (Siena)

The Basilica di San Francesco is a Basilica in Siena, which is dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi.

Location

The basilica is located within the city walls in Piazza San Francesco. This is located in the Terzo di Camollia district in the Contrada Giraffa ( Giraffe ) on the eastern side and Bruco (caterpillar ) to the west. The church building itself is still in the field of Giraffa. At the start of construction it was outside the city walls. After the third expansion of the city walls at the beginning of the 13th century San Francesco was now a few meters outside the city walls and was achieved by the newly built dei Frati Minori Porta. The last expansion of the city walls around the year 1450 then included also the Basilica of San Francesco. To the church also belongs to the Convention, which was led by the Frati Minori, three cloisters, the crypt, the Oratory of Saints Ludovico e Gherardo and the Oratorio di San Bernardino.

History

The hl. Francis of Assisi stayed in Siena in 1212 in the chapel at the Hill Ravacciano on. There he planted a tree, so that the church was named after dell'Alberino Chiesa ( Church of the sapling ). The first monks of the Franciscan came from this church and demanded by the Comune of Siena the establishment of a church in honor of St.. Francis. This desire began around 1228 and upheld the hill Castellaccia di Ovile with the construction of the church. The basilica was built in 1228-1255 in the form of an Ankh (Egyptian cross) and extended in the 13th and 14th centuries. Here, the Romanesque style was changed into a Gothic. Draftsman of the original church was probably Francesco di Giorgio. Since the beginning of the 15th century is one of the three out of four basilicas in Siena, located within the city walls of Siena. Before they separated the Porta dei Frati Minori (now Arco di San Francesco ) from the fortified city core. The fire of 1655 and the restoration from 1887 to 1894 by Giuseppe Partini left the interior more ' sober '. The Campanile was built in 1763 by Paolo Posi and Filippo Francini. The facade in the style of the mendicant orders was restored from 1894 to 1913 by Vittorio Mariani and Gaetano Ceccarelli and thereby transformed into the neo-Gothic style. The cloister and convent are now occupied by the Department of Business Law at the University of Siena.

Works in the interior ( selection)

Right side of the nave

• Stimmate di San Francesco (Gothic grave from the 14th century, unknown artist )
• Incoronazione della Madonna ( started around 1417/1421 by Taddeo di Bartolo, 1447 to continue to painted by Stefano di Giovanni Sassetta and around 1466 by Sano di Pietro completed, worn fresco of the city gate Porta Romana, then relocated to San Francesco )
• The Nativity of the Virgin ( 1671, screen, by Giovan Battista Ramacciotti )
• Predica di San Giacomo (canvas, by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini )
• Resurrezione di Lazzaro (canvas, by Alessandro Casolani )

Left side of the nave

• Annunciation (from Alessandro and Ilario Casolani )
• Crocifissione ( by Girolamo di Benvenuto )
• Gesù benedicente, la Vergine ei Santi Francesco e Andrea ( 1605, by Pietro Sorri )
• Madonna col Bambino e Santi ( by Jacopo Zucchi )
• Martyrdom of Santa Martina ( Pietro da Cortona )
• Morte di San Galgano ( Deifebo Burbarini assigned )
• Predica di San Bernardino ( Dionisio Montorselli )

Transepts, main altar and apse

The two transepts are equipped with numerous chapels. These are starting from the right, the Cappella de ' Docci, Cappella delle Parti Cole, Cappella del Sacramento, Cappella della Conception, Cappella delle Terziarie and the Cappella Palmieri. Then follows the Cappella Centrale with the main altar of Leopoldo Maccari and Giuseppe Partini. The first chapel on the left of the main altar is the Piccolomini d' Aragona of, then follow the Cappella Bandinelli, Cappella Bandini Piccolomini, Cappella Serafini. Major works are

• Gesù in pieta an evangelistic quattro ( 1370 ), Cappella del Sacramento, Lippo Vanni
• San Francesco (marble statue from the 15th century Cappella del Sacramento )
• Immacolata (1891, Cappella della Conception, by Pietro de Pezzatis )
• Madonna e il Bambino ( Cappella Palmieri, probably by Andrea Vanni, about 1398, by the fire in 1655 badly damaged )
• Consegna delle chiavi (1892, Ricciardo of Meacci )
• Busto di Monsig. Giovanni Pierallini (1891, Tito Sarrocchi )

Oratorio dei Santi Ludovico e Gherardo

The oratorio was designed mainly by Astolfo Petrazzi and Rutilio Manetti. Next paintings were painted by Deifebo Burbarini (San Gherardo libera gli imprigionati, 1647) and Annibale Mazzuoli (San Ludovico dinanzi al papa, Gloria di San Ludovico, 1687 ). Major works are

• Eterno Padre Giovanni, Ipolito e Bernardino (of Astolfo Petrazzi, 1635 )
• Gloria di San Gherardo (of Astolfo Petrazzi, 1647)
• Invocazione di San Gherardo per gli infermi e gli appestati (of Astolfo Petrazzi, 1647)
• Estasi durante la messa di San Gherardo (of Rutilio Manetti, 1635 )
• Il santo libera un indemoniato (of Rutilio Manetti, 1635 )