Basilica of Saint Francis: A Franciscan Gothic Church in Bologna
Site at a Glance
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- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
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- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Papal States
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Basilica
On this page25 sections
History
The Basilica of Saint Francis is a thirteenth-century Roman Catholic church in Bologna, Italy, built by the Franciscan community and dedicated to Francis of Assisi. Owned by the Conventual Franciscans, the branch of the Franciscan Order that has maintained the basilica since its foundation, it combines a Romanesque exterior with French Gothic architecture. The church became a major Franciscan center in Bologna and was raised to the rank of minor basilica by Pope Pius XI in November 1935.
The Franciscan settlement in Bologna
The Franciscan presence in Bologna began by 1213, when the community established a first settlement in the modest house of Santa Maria delle Pugliole. Bernard of Quintavalle helped establish the settlement through a grant associated with Nicolo Pepoli. The friars belonged to a mendicant order founded by Francis of Assisi, whose members traditionally depended on religious service and charitable work rather than landed wealth.
Francis visited Bologna in 1222, or possibly in 1223, and preached in the communal square. His preaching stimulated strong local interest in Franciscanism and helped create the conditions for a larger institutional presence. In 1236, with the support of Pope Gregory IX and the permission of Bologna’s civic authorities, the friars began building the present monumental complex in an area known as the old city ruins. The site contained remains of Roman Bononia, the ancient settlement of Bologna.
Construction and medieval development
The church was sufficiently advanced for consecration by Pope Innocent IV in 1251, and its essential parts were complete by 1263. The identity of the original architect remains uncertain. Bartolomeo delle Pugliole recorded that two arches collapsed in 1254 and mentioned Friar Andrea as “master of the church,” a title that may indicate a connection with the design or construction. Marco da Brescia has also been proposed, although no documentary evidence confirms the attribution. The complex was probably produced collectively by the Franciscan community rather than under one dominant architect.
The church’s medieval form reflected the expanding importance of the Franciscan foundation. Its spacious Latin-cross plan, high vaults, transept, apsidal passage, and radiating chapels incorporated French Gothic ideas into an Italian setting, while the facade and entrance retained strongly Romanesque features. Around the church, aristocratic families added private chapels over succeeding centuries. The fifteenth-century Chapel of Saint Bernardino survived the late nineteenth-century removal of most of these chapels.
A new large bell tower was constructed between 1397 and 1402 by Antonio di Vincenzo, who also designed the first private chapel of the Muzzarelli family. The tower enlarged the church’s medieval profile and later became the home of a five-bell installation. A smaller tower attached to the right side of the transept had already been built in 1260.
Music, suppression, and changing uses
During the eighteenth century, the friary served as a center for musical performance and study. Its musical tradition included Giovanni Battista Martini, a Franciscan friar and composer, and his pupil Stanislao Mattei. An eighteenth-century catalogue lists successive Conventual Franciscan chapel masters from 1537 to 1784. The church therefore functioned not only as a place of worship but also as an institution connected with Bologna’s musical culture.
The French occupation of 1796 brought a sharp change. The church was desecrated and converted into a customs house, while the friary was seized for use as barracks. Its artistic property was dispersed. Religious use resumed in 1842, but during the Second Italian War of Independence, the church was again taken over and used as a military storehouse. The Franciscans regained possession in 1886.
Restoration and wartime damage
From 1886 to 1906, Alfonso Rubbiani supervised a major restoration intended to recover the church’s medieval appearance. The work involved substantial reconstruction, and related interventions continued until 1919. The demolished Cloister of the Dead was rebuilt over its archaeological remains. Rubbiani’s tomb slab was later placed in the central chapel.
Bombing during the Second World War, particularly in 1943, damaged the facade, vaults, and cloister and caused structural collapses. Postwar recovery took place under the supervision of heritage authorities, with Alfredo Barbacci directing the restoration. These interventions shaped the basilica’s present appearance, in which medieval fabric, reconstructed elements, later chapels, and restored works coexist.
The bells and their traditions
The basilica’s bells also reflect the institution’s changing history. After religious orders were suppressed and the friary closed, the bells were sold to the parish of Venola in 1866. The friars reacquired them in 1931 and returned them to the tower. In 1932, a new and larger bell was cast through the benefaction of Rossi De Angeli.
In 1934, the Padre Stanislao Mattei Bell-Ringers’ Group was founded at the church after separating from the Union of Bolognese Bell-Ringers. Cesare Brighenti became its first president, and the group remained based at the basilica until the early 1960s. Manual double-ringing continued until 1968, when complete electrification replaced the original wooden fittings with iron equipment and ended the traditional manual technique. Since the late twentieth century, volunteers have occasionally carried out stationary ringing for major basilica observances. The church forms part of Italy’s national heritage.
Remains
The basilica is built principally of brick and stone and follows a Latin-cross plan with three naves, a transept, an apsidal ambulatory, and nine radiating chapels. An apsidal ambulatory is a passage that runs behind the choir around the apse and provides access to chapels opening from it. The building is regarded as an especially faithful Italian reflection of French Gothic forms, particularly in its external flying buttresses, while its facade remains Romanesque in character.
Facade, atrium, and medieval exterior
Facade and entrance
The gabled facade is divided into three parts by pilasters. Ceramic bowls decorate the slopes of the roof. In the central section, a small upper rose window is set above long lancets, paired windows, and a white false-relief cross. The two lateral sections contain further lancets and small circular openings. The glazing is transparent rather than stained glass.
The entrance portal stands within a marble porch flanked by stone bas-reliefs that may date from the eighth century. These Romanesque elements contrast with the Gothic structural treatment of the church behind them. The combination makes the exterior a direct expression of the building’s layered architectural history.
South atrium and nearby monuments
A small Romanesque atrium stands on the south side between the church and adjoining buildings. Its round arches, fragments of sculpture, and other decorative elements are incorporated into the walls. A side entrance leads toward the church and the convent cloister. The atrium has been heavily restored. Nearby are the 1361 tombstone of Ferdinando Tamajo, the Gothic tomb of Pietro Canetoli from about 1382, and a fresco of the Madonna and Child with Saints painted by Pietro di Giovanni Lianori around 1405.
Nave, choir, and funerary monuments
Interior structure
The central nave and two aisles are separated by octagonal pillars. The exceptionally high sexpartite vaults, each bay being divided into six sections, are strengthened by intersecting ribs and buttresses. At the eastern end, the choir is surrounded by the apsidal ambulatory and a crown of nine radiating chapels.
Arca tombs and later monuments
Near the apse are three medieval arca tombs, monumental funerary structures usually formed as decorated sarcophagi or raised tombs. One belongs to Accursius, a glossator, or medieval legal scholar who wrote explanations of Roman and canon law, and to his son Francesco d’Accursio. The monument of the jurist Odofredus dates from 1265, while the tomb of Rolandino dei Romanzi is dated 1284.
The church also contains the 1545 monument to Ludovico Boccadiferro, the 1492 monument to Pietro Fieschi by Francesco di Simone Ferrucci, the 1519 arca of Bishop Galeazzo Bottrigari, the 1571 monument to Alessandro Zambeccari by Lazzaro Casario, the 1543 tomb of Giuseppe Arnolfini, and the 1612 tombstone of Ercole Bottrigari. A cenotaph in the south aisle commemorates the musician Giovanni Battista Martini.
High altar and Alexander V monument
The marble altarpiece of Saint Francis on the high altar was commissioned from Pierpaolo and Jacobello dalle Masegne and executed by Pierpaolo alone between 1388 and 1392. Its scenes portray episodes from the life of Francis of Assisi.
The funerary monument of Antipope Alexander V was made in 1424 by Nicolò Lamberti. Alexander V was the name taken by Pietro Filargo, who was elected during the Western Schism and is treated by the Catholic Church as an antipope. Sperandio da Mantova added the base and arms around 1482. Made from polychrome and gilded terracotta, the monument includes a decorated sarcophagus, a reclining papal figure, angels, and statues of the Virgin, Saint Francis, and Saint Anthony of Padua.
Chapels and artistic remains
Presbytery and musical chapels
Fragments of Giovanni da Rimini’s fresco cycle, Stories from the Life of Saint Francis, were originally painted for the convent refectory. They were detached, restored, and repositioned on the presbytery walls. One apsidal chapel contains a painted Crucifix by Giovanni Lianori. Another contains an organ built by Balbiani and later enlarged by Francesco Michelotto of Albignasego. The instrument was designed and inaugurated by the organist Ireneo Fuser.
Chapel of the Madonna of Saint Luke
The chapel dedicated to the Madonna of Saint Luke contains altarpieces of Saint Bonaventure and Saint Francis of Paola by Antonio Maria Nardi. Achille Casanova began its wall decoration in 1933, and Renato Pasqui later repainted the figure of Saint Luke. The altar, made in 1932, bears a sixteenth-century oil painting by an unknown artist representing the Madonna of Saint Luke, patron of Bologna and its archdiocese.
Franciscan devotional chapels
One restored chapel has a paired-arched window bearing a Franciscan coat of arms. Achille Casanova’s 1906 decoration incorporates the Franciscan cord and allegories of Charity, Obedience, and Poverty. Its majolica altarpiece, designed by Edoardo Collamarini and made by Arturo and Gennaro Minghetti in 1895, represents the stigmatisation of Saint Francis.
Another chapel was restored in 1845 and decorated by Casanova in 1898 as a setting for nocturnal celebration of the Madonna. Since the mid-twentieth century, it has housed a Balbiani organ later enlarged by Michelotto. A chapel restored between 1887 and 1895 has simple wall decoration by Pompeo Fortini from 1895 and an altar painting by Carlo Secchi from 1942 showing Saint Joseph of Copertino in ecstasy.
Central chapel
The central chapel was rebuilt after a much larger chapel, erected in 1713 over the original thirteenth-century chapel, was demolished. Its construction was funded by 80,000 subscribers from around the world as a votive appeal for peace and social concord. Cardinal Francesco Battaglini laid the first stone on 13 February 1891, and the chapel was inaugurated on 18 May 1899.
Casanova decorated the chapel with Franciscan and peace-themed imagery, including paired-arched windows, the Annunciation, the Canticle of the Creatures, sacred books, and roses bearing the names of peoples. A large wrought-iron lamp hangs within the space. A fourteenth-century cross by an unknown artist is placed above the altar, and the floor contains Alfonso Rubbiani’s tomb slab.
Albergati and Guido delle Spade chapels
A chapel with Giottesque wall decoration by Casanova contains an altar designed and painted by Augusto Sezanne in 1892. The altar now bears a nineteenth-century Sacred Heart painting by Aurelio Mariani. The chapel also contains the fifteenth-century funerary monument of Vianesio Albergati the elder by Francesco di Simone Ferrucci, the 1580 monument of Vianesio Albergati the younger by Lazzaro Casario, and a fresco attributed to Bagnacavallo depicting the Eternal Blessing.
A chapel restored in 1899 has a single-light window and wall decoration by Casanova commemorating Bologna’s celebration for Blessed Guido Spada after his return from Rome in 1340. Its majolica arca, made by Arturo and Gennaro Minghetti in a fifteenth-century Faentine style, contains the remains of Blessed Guido delle Spade, Bonaparte Ghisilieri, Matteo da Faenza, Nicolò dei Pepoli, and Bonuccio. A painting of Saint Catherine Martyr once kept there is now in the National Art Gallery of Bologna.
Later restored chapels
A chapel restored in 1904 contains Casanova’s wall decoration of a small cemetery, Jacopo Forti’s 1485 painting of the Madonna with Saints Jerome and Francis, Giuseppe Romagnoli’s 1905 funerary slab of Emma Boschi, and Renato Pasqui’s 1951 painting of the Apparition of the Madonna of Fatima. A painting by Bartolomeo Cesi formerly kept there is now in the National Art Gallery of Bologna.
A chapel restored in 1930 has a single-light window with the Cupini coat of arms and wall decoration by Antonio Gardini from 1928. Its 1929 concrete altarpiece by Teresa Gruber depicts Saint Joseph with the Christ Child between Saints Joachim and Anne and the young Madonna. Ludovico Carracci’s Conversion of Saul, dated 1587 to 1588, was formerly kept in the chapel and is now in the National Art Gallery of Bologna.
Cloisters and bell towers
Cloisters
The fourteenth-century Cloister of the Dead has tombs of doctors of the University of Bologna set into its walls, including those of Bartoluzzo de’ Preti and Gerardo Ghisilieri. The medieval Studium of Bologna was a major center of higher learning, particularly for law, and its doctors were scholars or teachers associated with that institution. A second large cloister, dating from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, lies on the south side. Parts of the former Franciscan complex have been converted to other uses, including financial offices.
Small bell tower
The smaller bell tower, attached to the right side of the transept, dates from 1260 and contains a single bell. Its bell chamber is reached by a very narrow masonry spiral staircase. The bell was cast by Cesare Brighenti in 1935, is tuned to E3, measures about 120 centimetres across, and weighs approximately 1,100 kilograms. It is operated manually but is no longer used.
Large bell tower
Antonio di Vincenzo built the large bell tower between 1397 and 1402. It rises 48.50 metres and has elegant three-light windows in its bell chamber. A fresco of the Madonna and Saints by Pietro di Giovanni Lianori occupies the base. Five bells are arranged on two levels, with the three larger bells below and two smaller ones above.
The largest bell was cast by Cesare Brighenti in 1932. Tuned to D3, it measures 131 centimetres in diameter and weighs approximately 1,600 kilograms. Two bells cast by Gaetano and Clemente Brighenti in 1847 are tuned to F3 and G3, measure 110.1 and 97.8 centimetres, and weigh 850 and 592 kilograms. A 1968 bell by Francesco De Poli is tuned to A3, measures 84.6 centimetres, and weighs about 400 kilograms. The remaining 1847 bell, also by Gaetano and Clemente Brighenti, is tuned to C4, measures 74.6 centimetres, and weighs 290 kilograms.
The bells once used the Bolognese double-ringing tradition, in which ringers controlled the bells manually through coordinated movement. The tower’s iron frame was modified in the early 1930s to accommodate the new largest bell. The automated system now allows ordinary ringing and a limited stationary bell-cup mode, while volunteers sometimes perform stationary rhythmic ringing by pulling cords attached to the clappers.
