The Basilica of St Francis

Saint Francis in Siena

In 1212 Saint Francis went to Siena for the first time. It is said that the Divine Will showed him the way: one day, at a crossroads between Florence, Siena and Arezzo, Saint Francis wasn’t sure on where to go. He asked friar Masseo, who was with him, to turn round and round so many times that he eventually fell to the ground with his head turned towards Siena; that was the sign that indicated the right way to go.
The town was disturbed by many disputes and strong internal conflicts, and for this reason the help of the Poverello of Assisi was strongly needed. With his sermons, he brought peace back to the city to the Bishop’s great joy. One day, as he was walking outside Siena's walls looking for some tranquillity, Francis placed his cane in the ground, miraculously generating a tree: this still gives the area the name of Alberino, around which the first Sienese Franciscan community settled and where a church still stands today.
In 1228, the year in which Saint Francis was canonized, the City of Siena expressed the desire to erect a church in his honour. In the meantime, in 1236, the Friars Minor moved from the original dwelling, which they considered too remote, to another within the city walls, which is generally believed to be the church of San Pietro a Ovile, already documented from the end of the twelfth  century. Not far from this building, the first Franciscan church in Siena was completed in 1255; not very large in size, probably with an essential, rectangular plant, it evoked the simplicity of early Franciscanism. That church, dedicated to St. Francis, was later replaced by the much larger one which is currently standing.
For the construction of the original building in 1243 Pope Gregory IX agreed to use the riches assigned by repented moneylenders.
In 1255 Pope Alexander IV granted the church of Saint Francis the privilege to bury dead citizens inside, possibly including Provenzano Salvani, Siena’s victorious commander in the battle of September 4th 1260 against the Florentine army, who was killed in the battle of Colle Val d'Elsa in 1269.
The Order of Friars Minor attracted a large number of believers in the city over the following decades, and as the church seemed to be too small to house them all, in 1326 the construction of a new and bigger church began.