Down on the plain about 4 km below Assisi, this gigantic basilica is the seventh-largest church in Christendom and the obvious landmark you pass on the way in by train. It was built specifically to house the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel where St. Francis founded the order; the small chapel sits incongruously inside the vast nave, dwarfed by the surrounding architecture but unchanged in itself.
Also inside is the Chapel of the Transito, where Francis died on 3 October 1226, and a museum with reliquaries and works by Bernardino Pinturicchio. The basilica is a major pilgrimage destination on the Festa del Perdono (1–2 August). Closer to the town centre than you might think — a 7-minute bus or 40-minute downhill walk from the old town.