Visiting the Basilica of St Francis

Do you need tickets for the Basilica of St Francis?

No. Individual visitors walk in for free, with no ticket and no booking.

The basilica's own booking office puts it in one line: entry for individual visitors is free and no ticket is required (prenotazioni.sanfrancesco.org). Groups of 15 to 50 people (agencies, schools, parishes) book a slot so they get in without waiting, and licensed guides register their groups the same way.

That changes how you should read tour listings. When a Viator page says admission included, nothing is being bought for you at the door. You pay for the guide, the booked group slot and, often, a radio headset. On the basilica tours on this site the headset costs 2.50 to 3 euro per person, paid on the spot.

The booking office also handles audio guide reservations and visits led by a friar or a nun. Friar-led visits are meant for pilgrim groups, not couples. For a question the website does not answer, the info office is on +39 075 8190084.

What are the Basilica of St Francis opening hours in 2026?

Summer (April to October): Lower Church 06:00 to 19:00, Upper Church 08:30 to 18:45. Winter: the Upper Church closes at 18:00.

The two churches keep separate hours, and the Lower Church closes early on Wednesdays. These are the times on the official timetable:

What is the dress code, and can you take photos inside?

Knees and shoulders covered for everyone, no photos inside the churches, and silence.

Custodians stand at both doors and inside the naves, and they do send people away. No shorts, no sleeveless tops, no short skirts, for men as much as women. Every Umbria con Me listing repeats the rule and warns that you risk refused entry. On a hot July day a light scarf or a pair of thin trousers in your bag solves it.

Photography is not allowed inside either church, and the custodians enforce it with a quiet word and a raised hand. This is the hidden cost of going alone: there are no labels next to the frescoes, and you cannot snap them to read up later. Buy a guidebook in the shop, book the official audio guide, or take a guide.

Silence is asked everywhere and expected in the crypt, where people come to pray at the tomb. Mass runs most of the day in the Lower Church, so keep to the sides when a service is on.

Upper Church or Lower Church: what should you look for?

Start low and dark, finish high and bright: the Lower Church holds the tomb and the oldest work, the Upper Church the 28-scene life of Francis.

The Lower Church was finished in 1230 and feels like a crypt: low Romanesque arches, side chapels, every surface painted. Look for Cimabue's Maestà with the famous portrait of Francis in the right transept, Simone Martini's chapel of St Martin, Pietro Lorenzetti's Passion scenes in the left transept, and over the high altar the cross vault of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience that the basilica credits to Giotto and his workshop (around 1315). Giotto's circle also painted the Magdalene chapel.

The Upper Church, completed in 1253, is French Gothic light: one tall nave, stained glass, and along the lower walls the cycle of 28 scenes from the life of Francis. Tradition gives it to Giotto, painted in the 1290s; scholars still argue over whether he or a Roman workshop did the work, and the basilica's own page says the attribution is debated. Scene 13, the crib at Greccio, is the one guides stop at, along with the sermon to the birds. Cimabue's darkened frescoes fill the apse and transept.

On your own, start early: the tomb and the Lower Church open at 06:00 and are at their quietest before the groups arrive, then go up to the Upper Church after 08:30 when the light comes through the glass.

One focused hour with an official Assisi guide: the Upper Church cycle, the Lower Church chapels and the tomb, with headsets so you hear every word.

★ 4.8 · 1 hour · from $46

Explore the basilica tour with an official guide → Tour details

Where is the tomb of St Francis, and when is the crypt open?

In a crypt under the high altar of the Lower Church, open daily 06:00 to 18:15.

Stairs go down from the middle of the Lower Church. The crypt was cut into the bare rock in 1820, and the saint lies in a plain stone sarcophagus set into the pillar beneath the altar. Four of his first companions, Leo, Masseo, Rufino and Angelo, rest in the corners, and Jacopa dei Settesoli, the Roman noblewoman Francis called Brother Jacopa, lies between the staircases.

The oil lamp in front of the tomb never goes out. Each year on 4 October a different Italian region donates the oil, and the lamp carries a line from Dante's Paradiso.

From April to October the crypt also opens on Friday and Saturday evenings, 21:00 to 22:00, for personal prayer. It is the quietest hour you can get in the building. In 2026 the remains were brought up and shown in the Lower Church for the first time, from 22 February to 22 March, for the 800th anniversary of Francis's death; more on that year in our anniversary post.

Can you take a guided tour of the basilica on Sundays?

No. Guides may lead groups inside on weekdays only; on Sundays, holidays and 3-4 October they explain outside and you go in alone.

The basilica allows guided tours inside on weekdays from 09:00 to 17:15, with the last Saturday entry at 16:00. On Sundays, major Catholic feasts, Italian national holidays and on 3 and 4 October, licensed guides cannot speak inside. Your guide gives the talk on the lawn or in the cloister, then you walk through in silence on your own.

On 4 October, the feast of St Francis and since 2026 a national holiday again, the basilica closes to visitors altogether. Liturgy can also stop tours at short notice: in spring 2026 guided visits inside were suspended from 15 February to 6 April while the saint's remains were on show.

The practical rule is simple. Book a weekday, ideally Tuesday to Friday, and you get the full guided visit. On a Sunday a basilica tour is still pleasant, but you pay for a talk on the lawn.

What happened to the basilica in the 1997 earthquake?

A vault of the Upper Church collapsed on 26 September 1997, killing four people; the church reopened on 28 November 1999.

The first shock hit in the night. Hours later, while experts and friars were inspecting the damage, an aftershock brought down two sections of the Upper Church vault. Two Franciscans and two surveyors died, and frescoed vault sections attributed to Cimabue and the Giotto workshop fell to the floor in thousands of pieces.

Restorers sorted the fragments for two years, and the Upper Church reopened with anti-seismic reinforcement on 28 November 1999 (Vatican News on the 20th anniversary). Look up near the entrance and above the altar: the patched areas where pieces were set back are visible to anyone who knows to look.

Is the Treasury Museum worth it, and how long should you allow?

Give the two churches and the tomb 60 to 90 minutes; add 30 to 45 for the Treasury Museum, which runs on a free-will offering.

The Museo del Tesoro sits in the convent at Piazza San Francesco 2. It holds about a hundred pieces: a 13th-century panel of St Francis with four healing miracles, a chalice made by Guccio di Mannaia in 1290, a Flemish woven hanging of 1478 showing the Franciscan tree, and the Perkins collection of around fifty panel paintings with names like Pietro Lorenzetti and Sassetta. Entry is by offering. It is closed on Mondays, on 25 December and 1 January, and from 12 January to 23 February; last entry is 20 minutes before closing.

For the basilica itself, an hour with a guide covers the essentials, which is why the official tour runs 60 minutes. On your own, allow 90: the crypt queue moves slowly at peak times and you will want to sit in the Upper Church. A late-afternoon visit on a weekday in the shoulder months is the calmest; the crowds post has the busy days. To fit the visit into a full day in town, see the one-day Assisi itinerary.

Want the town as well? The small-group walk starts at the top of Assisi and finishes with 30 minutes in each church, max 15 people.

★ 4.8 · 2 hours 30 min · from $69

Explore the small-group Assisi walk → Tour details

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