Why go
This is the Francis story before the great basilica: a church built over a place identified with his upbringing and break from family expectations. Its domed Greek-cross plan belongs to a seventeenth-century building. Those family associations invite a different kind of attention from the basilica built around his tomb.
The full story
The site of Chiesa Nuova was regarded as the home of Francis’s father, Pietro di Bernardone, and as Francis’s presumed birthplace. That identification prompted the Franciscan official Antonio de Trejo to seek the property after seeing it deteriorate in the early seventeenth century. Work on a church followed in 1615 with support from the Spanish crown. Its Greek-cross plan gives nave and transepts equal length, while a coffered dome rises above the centre. Frescoes by Cesare Sermei and Giacomo Giorgetti add later pictorial interpretation to the building. The high altar was placed over the room traditionally linked to Francis. These associations need to be read as tradition rather than proof of every episode told about the house. Even with that distinction, the church offers a useful contrast with the Basilica of San Francesco: it concerns the saint’s family origins and decision to renounce wealth, while the basilica commemorates his life after death.