Basilica di San Francesco (Siena)

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

Facade of San Francesco
Aerial view from the Torre del Mangia on San Francesco

location

The minor basilica church 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 east side and Bruco (caterpillar) on the west. The church building itself is still in the Giraffa area . When construction began, 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 reached through the newly built city gate Porta dei Frati Minori (today Arco di San Francesco ). The last expansion of the city walls around 1450 then also included the church and monastery. The church also includes the convent headed by the Frati minori , three cloisters , the crypt , the Oratorio dei Santi Ludovico e Gherardo and the Oratorio di San Bernardino .

Facade as it was in 1894
San Francesco, floor plan, Wilhelm Lübke , 1860

history

St. Francis of Assisi stayed in Siena in 1212 in the chapel near the Ravacciano hill . There he planted a tree, so that the church was then called Chiesa dell'Alberino (Church of the sapling). The first Franciscan monks came from this church and asked the Comune Siena to build a church in honor of St. Francis. This request was granted around 1228 and construction of the church began on the Castellaccia di Ovile hill . Remnants of this predecessor building, which was erected until 1255, are no longer in evidence, as the building that exists today, designed by Agostino di Giovanni and Agnolo di Ventura , was started in considerably larger dimensions from 1326 . Its completion took until 1475. The fire of 1655 and the restoration from 1887 to 1894 by Giuseppe Partini with their removal of the baroque furnishings left the interior rather sober. The campanile was built in 1763 by Paolo Posi and Filippo Francini. The previously even simpler facade was clad from 1894 to 1913 by Vittorio Mariani and Gaetano Ceccarelli. The Renaissance portal by Francesco di Giorgio from the second half of the 15th century was removed on this occasion (today at the entrance on the left) and replaced by a neo-Gothic marble portal. Under the Marientympanon, an inscription indicates that the church was elevated to a minor basilica in the 1890s. The cloister and the convent are now occupied by the Institute for Business Law at the University of Siena .

architecture

The structural similarity to the Dominican Church, which is 100 years older, is not accidental: as in other Italian cities, both orders were in competition and tried to outdo each other with the size of their church buildings. There is also San Francesco from a huge, side ship loose nave hall , followed by a transept with several chapels on the right and left of the choir chapel connects. The interior of the flat sloping roof shows open rafters , which corresponded to a tendency in early mendicant order building to forego magnificent vaults. The walls inside follow the design with white / dark green striped marble changes based on the model of the cathedral .

Works in the interior (selection)

The nave of the basilica
West side of the basilica seen from the third quarter of Camollia

Inside of the facade

Right side of the nave

Left side of the nave

Transepts, main altar and apse

The two transepts are equipped with numerous chapels . Starting from the right, these are the Cappella de 'Docci , Cappella delle Particole , Cappella del Sacramento , Cappella della Concezione , Cappella delle Terziarie and the Cappella Palmieri . This is followed by the Cappella Centrale with the main altar by Leopoldo Maccari and Giuseppe Partini. The first chapel on the left of the main altar is that of the Piccolomini d'Aragona , then the Cappella Bandinelli , Cappella Bandini Piccolomini , and Cappella Saracini . Major works are:

  • Sant'Anna e la Madonna Bambina che fa l'elemosina a dei poveri (1890, Cappella delle Particole, by Cesare Maccari )
  • Gesù in pietà ei quattro evangelisti (1370), Cappella del Sacramento, by Lippo Vanni
  • San Francesco (15th century marble statue, Cappella del Sacramento)
  • Immacolata (1891, Cappella della Concezione, by Pietro de Pezzatis)
  • Madonna e il Bambino (Cappella Palmieri, probably by Andrea Vanni , ca.1398, badly damaged by the fire in 1655)
  • Consegna delle chiavi (1892, by Ricciardo Meacci)
  • Busto di Monsig. Giovanni Pierallini (1891, by Tito Sarrocchi )

Oratorio dei Santi Ludovico e Gherardo

The oratorio was mainly designed by Astolfo Petrazzi and Rutilio Manetti . Other paintings are 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 (by Astolfo Petrazzi, 1635)
  • Gloria di San Gherardo (by Astolfo Petrazzi, 1647)
  • Invocazione di San Gherardo per gli infermi e gli appestati (by Astolfo Petrazzi, 1647)
  • Estasi di San Gherardo durante la messa (by Rutilio Manetti, 1635)
  • Il santo libera un indemoniato (by Rutilio Manetti, 1635)

literature

Web links

Commons : Basilica di San Francesco in Siena  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TCI
  2. ^ Photo from the neo-Gothic portal around 1900
  3. ↑ Dipartimento di Diritto dell'Economia ( Memento of September 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 14, 2013 (Italian)

Coordinates: 43 ° 19 ′ 20.4 "  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 4.5"  E