Innumerable churches were built in Italy during the so-called Gothic period, principally towards its conclusion. Not to speak of the famous Cathedrals of Milan and Florence, nor of S. Anthony, nor of the Cathedral of Padua, the Cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto seem especially to lean away from antique and Lombard traditions towards those of France, a characteristic especially notable in the decorative details of their west fronts, which recall in many ways the work of French architects during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. [Illustration: 67. CATHEDRAL OR DUOMO OF SIENA. WEST FRONT] [Illustration: 68. CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS AT ASSISI. APSE AND CLOISTERS] It is the opinion of some archæologists that the true parent of the Cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto was the Church of St. Francis at Assisi, which is not far distant. Now St. Francis of Assisi is undeniably French in origin. This church, which was founded in 1228 to receive the remains of St. Francis who died in 1226, was possibly completed as to the lower structure in the thirteenth century; but it is improbable, to say the least, that this completion should have been the work of a German, for at this period Gothic architecture was still in embryo in Germany, while in France it had reached its most glorious development. The upper church seems to be later in date by a century; we may clearly trace its affinities with French art in the system of construction, which has all the characteristics peculiar to that which prevailed in the south of France at the close of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. Of this system the Church of Albi is the most finished type.[17] Assisi, in its single aisle, in its buttresses, both as to their interior projections and their exterior half-turreted forms, shows a complete analogy with the French Albigeois church. [17] See chap. ix. "Albi," etc. CHAPTER IX CHURCHES OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES IN FRANCE AND IN THE EAST