Built in the fifteenth century, the Basilica dell’Osservanza was subject to several extensions and adaptations throughout the centuries, until it was almost totally destroyed by bombings during the Second World War in 1944. The building was rebuilt just five years later, faithfully following the original design and using as much of the original materials as possible.
The church’s exterior is characterized by simple and well-balanced forms: the brick façade is preceded by a porch sheltered by a pitched roof, while the top part ends with a tympanum that contains, in its centre, the sun with the trigram used by Saint Bernardino; the bell tower is a replica made in the late-seventeenth century.
The interior impresses with its refined elegance, in line with the Renaissance canons of orderliness, harmony, and proportion. The plant has a single nave, enriched by four chapels on each side, and the sanctuary , which is higher than that the nave, is covered by a dome.
This simple frame, inspired by respect of Franciscan spirituality, houses some magnificent works of art from the Sienese and Florentine schools, all made between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.