The Altar of Saint Francis
This chapel is not part of the narrative cycle of the life of Jesus. On this ancient altar, the founder of the Sacri Monti, Father Bernardino Caimi, celebrated the holy mass when the Basilica of the Assumption had not been built yet.
The chapel is dedicated to Saint Francis, and depicts the death of the saint, surrounded by his friars. Above the altar, there was a painting by Gaudenzio Ferrari (1517) now at the Pinacoteca of Varallo. It depicts Saint Francis receiving the stigmata. It was commissioned, together with the frescoes and the chapel of the Sepulchre, by the nobleman, Emiliano Scarognini.
The current fresco with the death of the saint was painted in 1880, by the Valsesian painter Pier Celestino Gilardi, and financed by Benedetta Totti Durio, from Civiasco.