Real Basílica de San Francisco el Grande, Madrid

The Royal Basilica of Saint Francis the Great is the large Roman Catholic church before you, forming part of a Franciscan convent in Madrid’s Palacio neighbourhood. Its striking feature is the dome: it measures 33 metres across and rises 58 metres high, with a rounded profile unusual among eighteenth-century domes. The building follows a design by Francisco Cabezas, later developed by Antonio Pló and completed by Francesco Sabatini, in arquitectura neoclásica.

The present church replaced an earlier Franciscan convent, whose site had been occupied by a chapel. As local legend has it, that earlier foundation was established by Francis of Assisi in 1217. Inside, the paintings span Spanish art from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, including works by Zurbarán and Francisco Goya.

The interior decoration took shape during an extensive restoration from 1880 to 1889, when artists added murals and other ornament. There is an especially unexpected detail in the towers: the basilica holds 19 bells. Among them are 8 change-ringing bells cast by John Warner and Sons in 1882. They cannot be rung because only bells 2, 4, and 6 have wheels, yet they form Spain’s only peal of change-ringing bells.