Basílica de San Francisco El Grande
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Loading... - Santiago Rubio
- 24 Mar 2023
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Details
Address:
Plaza de San Francisco 1
Hours:
Mass 8-10.30am Mon-Sat, museum 10.30am-12.30pm & 4-6pm Tue-Sun Sep-Jun, 10.30am-12.30pm & 5-7pm Tue-Sun Jul & Aug
Price:
adult/concession €5/3
Crowning Madrid’s oldest neighborhood of La Latina is an architectural and visual masterpiece that is the Basílica de San Francisco el Grande (Basilica of Saint Francis the Great) — as much a place of Catholic worship as it is a temple paying homage to Spanish art. Its several marble and gold inlaid chapels and sacristy are home to an impressive collection of paintings by Spanish masters, the most famous of which is Francisco Goya’s St. Bernardino of Siena preaching to Alfonso V of Aragon. With a diameter of 33 meters and height of 58 meters, the Basilica’s great dome is the largest in Spain and the fourth largest in Europe, after those of Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon in Rome, and the Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.
Royal Basilica of San Francisco el Grande, Madrid
History of the Basilica de San Francisco el Grande
This treasured Spanish heritage has been through multiple incarnations, the earliest of which goes back to the 13th century. Legend has it that when Saint Francis of Assissi passed by Spain on his pilgrimage to the tomb of the St. James the Apostle in Compostela in 1214, he built a modest home for himself and his companions near a hermitage where the church stands today.
From these humble beginnings, the structure was expanded and enriched over the years, and eventually exceeded the splendor of all the churches in Madrid, until it was completely demolished in 1760 in order to build an ever bigger and more beautiful church to replace it.
The ambitious work was then assigned to a Franciscan monk, Fray Francisco Cabezas, who had envisioned a dome covering a circular temple housing several chapels. He worked on it for seven years until the project was suspended because of a disagreement over the proposed plan for the dome. Years later, under the rule of King Carlos III, construction recommenced under the guidance of the famed Italian architect Francesco Sabatini (who likewise designed Madrid’s Puerta de Alcalá and oversaw the reconstruction of the Plaza Mayor). The royal church was finally consecrated on 1784, and nearly two centuries later in 1963, was officially conferred the status of Basilica Minor by Pope John XXIII. Read More…
