Chiesa Nuova

A Franciscan sanctuary built over the place long held in Assisi's tradition to be the home of Francis's family.

ITALY · ASSISI 43.0706° N · 12.6157° E
Location
Assisi, Italy 43.0706° N · 12.6157° E
Type
Franciscan sanctuary church A seventeenth-century church begun in 1615 by the Friars Minor with the support of Philip III of Spain
Dedication
San Francesco Convertito
Time Needed
30 minutes to 1 hour
Why Go

The House Tradition of a Converted Saint

Come here if you want Assisi's Franciscan story to remain domestic and human. The great basilicas show the saint remembered by the Church. Chiesa Nuova keeps the more intimate local memory of a merchant's son, his family, and the conversion that broke open that household's expectations.

A Sanctuary Raised Over Memory

For centuries Assisi's local tradition identified this place with the house of Pietro di Bernardone, Francis's father. In 1615 the Friars Minor, supported by Philip III of Spain, began the church now called Chiesa Nuova and dedicated it to San Francesco Convertito. The sanctuary presents lower rooms and a confined space associated with Francis's early life, including the tradition that his father held him after his return from Foligno. These are not neutral archaeological exhibits. They are a received Franciscan memory, and the right way to visit them is with gratitude, historical restraint, and prayer.

The church is a seventeenth-century sanctuary rather than a medieval survival. Its deliberate placement over the house tradition is the architecture's meaning: a later church gathers an older local memory and turns it toward the conversion of Francis.

Local tradition had identified this site with Francis's family house for centuries before the present church was built.

The Friars Minor began the present sanctuary in 1615 with the support of Philip III of Spain.

The lower spaces are read as places of received Franciscan memory, not as a reconstructed documentary house tour.

Spiritual Significance

Chiesa Nuova should not be reduced to a house museum. Its title, San Francesco Convertito, gives the key. The place speaks of a conversion that touched a family, a city, and eventually the whole Church.

Do Not Miss · 2 stops

What to notice.

  1. The dedication to Francis converted

    It tells you how the church wants its household tradition to be read.

  2. The lower spaces

    Visit them slowly and distinguish a living tradition from an archaeological claim.

What to notice
  • The seventeenth-century church deliberately built over an older local memory.
  • How close the household tradition stands to the Spogliazione's episcopal tradition of renunciation.
  • The difference between a site of conversion and a museum of childhood.
Visit Plans · 2 plans · add to a journey

How much time, and what to do with it.

  • Duration 30 min Best for First-time pilgrims

    The conversion tradition

    Pray in the church, then see the lower spaces as a received memory of Francis's household and conversion.

  • Duration Half day Best for Francis before the brotherhood

    House, threshold, and font

    3 ordered stops

    Read three distinct Assisi memories together: the household here, the episcopal threshold at the Spogliazione, and the baptismal font at San Rufino.

    1. Chiesa Nuova
    2. Santuario della Spogliazione
    3. Cathedral of San Rufino

Keep Chiesa Nuova within a small old-town sequence. It carries an intimate local memory and does not need a long tour to be read well.

How to Visit

Entering as a pilgrim, not a tourist.

Enter the church first and let its dedication set the visit. Then see the lower spaces slowly, remembering the household conflict behind Francis's conversion. Do not try to turn the visit into a forensic reconstruction. Continue to the Spogliazione for the episcopal side of the same conversion story, or to San Rufino for the city's sacramental beginning.

  • Franciscan prayer and worship
  • Pilgrim visits to the house tradition
  • A small sanctuary within the daily life of the old town
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects

What pilgrims come to venerate here.

The house tradition of Francis's family

Place of devotional tradition
Friars Minor of Assisi
Traditional

Assisi's local tradition had identified this site with Francis's family house for centuries before the present church was built.

The lower enclosure associated with Francis's early conversion

Place of devotional tradition
Friars Minor of Assisi
Traditional

The sanctuary presents a confined lower space in connection with Francis's early conflict with his father; it should be read as received memory rather than documentary certainty.

Source note Traditional attributions are presented as tradition, with documentation named where it exists.

Connected Saints

How this place gathers the saints.

Saint Francis of Assisi Household and conversion tradition The church is built over the site long held in Assisi to be the home of Francis's family and presents the conversion tradition attached to it.
Continue Your Pilgrimage · Continue the day

Within walking distance.

Sacred Geography

How a household memory becomes a sanctuary

Place and memory

Chiesa Nuova gathers a long-held Assisi memory of Francis's family home into a seventeenth-century Franciscan church. Its closest continuation is the episcopal tradition of the Spogliazione, not a longer catalogue of Franciscan sites.

The Friars Minor identify the church's 1615 foundation and the local tradition of Francis's house. The lower spaces are received with reverence, but are not presented here as a fully documented medieval house plan.

Map · Assisi, Italy

Plan around this place.

Editorial sources

The house identification and the lower-space traditions are received local Franciscan memory. The official Friars Minor page is the source for the church's seventeenth-century foundation and its current visitor guidance.

Official

assisiofm.it

Image credits
All photography credits
Last reviewed

July 18, 2026