Piazza Porziuncola, Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi, Italy
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Portiuncula)
A massive Renaissance basilica built around the tiny Portiuncula chapel where Francis founded the Franciscan Order and where he died in 1226.
The Portiuncula is a stone chapel about the size of a garden shed, and the Catholic Church built one of Italy's largest basilicas around it. The contrast is the whole point. Francis loved this little chapel — he repaired it with his own hands, gathered his first followers here, and it became the birthplace of the Franciscan movement. When he was dying in October 1226, he asked to be brought back here, and he died on the bare ground beside it. In 1569, Pope Pius V ordered a massive basilica built to shelter the chapel and handle the growing crowds of pilgrims. The result is startling: you walk into a grand Renaissance church and there, standing in the middle of the nave like a house inside a house, is the original stone chapel with its thirteenth-century frescoes. Off to the right, behind glass doors, is the Cappella del Transito — the cell where Francis died, still containing fragments of the original walls. The rose garden outside, according to tradition, grows thornless roses because Francis threw himself into the thorns during a moment of temptation and they lost their thorns in sympathy.
Diocese: Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino
Style: Renaissance and Baroque
What to See
The Portiuncula stands free in the center of the nave, and you can walk inside it. The entrance is low and the space is dark; a small altar sits under thirteenth-century frescoes that have been restored several times. Stand inside for a minute and try to grasp that this is where the Franciscan Order began. The Cappella del Transito is to the right of the main apse — a narrow room with a statue of Francis and fragments of the original walls. The rose garden is through a door on the south side and the roses really are thornless; a small chapel of St. Bonaventure sits beside it. The basilica's museum, in the former convent, has works by Giunta Pisano and other early Italian painters.
Pilgrim Notes
The basilica is in the town of Santa Maria degli Angeli at the foot of the hill, about four kilometers from the old center of Assisi. The Assisi train station is a five-minute walk away, making this the natural first or last stop on a visit. The church is open daily from early morning to late evening and admission is free. Mass is offered multiple times daily. The Portiuncula Indulgence can be obtained here from August 1 to 2 each year, or on any day by visiting the chapel under the usual conditions. The site is fully accessible and rarely as crowded as the upper basilica in Assisi proper.