Why go
Visit this history through Clare rather than seeing the building as an echo of San Francesco. Her community of women became the Order of Saint Clare, and the basilica’s tomb and art keep that distinct legacy visible. Her burial place anchors the building’s purpose.
The full story
Construction of the basilica began in the years after Clare’s death. Her remains were transferred here in 1260 from the chapel of San Giorgio and placed beneath the high altar. The tomb was rediscovered in the nineteenth century, and a crypt shrine was made to hold her remains. The building’s heavy side buttresses, rose window and spare Gothic spaces give it a character unlike the layered churches of San Francesco. Its thirteenth-century painting and frescoes belong to the wider artistic life of medieval Assisi, but the identity of the place rests with Clare. A follower of Francis, she founded a community for women that later became the Order of Saint Clare. Her story should be read beside his, not folded into it: the two basilicas preserve related but separate histories of religious life. Saint Agnes of Assisi is also buried here, another reminder of the women associated with this community.