Royal Basilica of San Francisco El Grande

This monumental neoclassical basilica, near the popular La Latina neighborhood, is renowned for the artistic treasures it houses, including canvases by Goya and Zurbarán, as well as for its impressive dome, the largest in Spain and the fourth largest in Europe, after those of St. Peter's Basilica and the Pantheon, both in Rome, and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.

Declared a National Monument in 1980, the church stands, according to tradition, on the land offered to St. Francis of Assisi after his passage through Madrid in 1214 on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Up to three churches were built on this site before the current one, which dates from the 18th century and was constructed by the Franciscan order. Its construction was completed between 1776 and 1784, under the direction of Francisco Sabatini. The church consists of a circular central nave covered by a large dome 33 meters in diameter and 58 meters high, a main chapel, and six surrounding chapels, also covered by smaller domes. The Basilica of San Francisco Grande Museum houses one of Madrid's most outstanding collections of sacred art, comprised of paintings by 18th- and 19th-century Spanish artists such as Goya, Zurbarán, Casto Plasencia, Francisco Jover, Martínez Cubells, José del Castillo, Moreno Carbonero, Eugenio Oliva, Menéndez Pidal, González Velázquez, Gregorio Ferro, Gaspar Crayer, Vicente Carducci, Antonio Carnicero, Alonso Cano, and Luca Giordano, as well as remarkable sculptures carved in white marble. The Museum-Basilica is linked to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation through the Obra Pía de los Santos Lugares, a public institution in charge of the management and conservation of the complex.