Oratorio di San Lorenzo (14th century)

This oratory belonged to the Confraternita di San Lorenzo, which is documented from 1329. 

The confraternity was abolished in 1772, and the oratory passed first to the Confraternita di Sant’ Antonio and then into private hands in 1860.  It received its current appearance after 1933, when the English socialite Mary Lowell Berkley bought it.  She established an exclusive salon here that was frequented by distinguished scholars for about forty years.

The portal (16th century) of the oratory on the left has the grill of San Lorenzo (the emblem of the confraternity) on its architrave. 

Image courtesy of Photoroma

The older wall in front of you contains a frescoed shrine (ca. 1394).  The very damaged fresco by Cola Petruccioli depicts the Madonna and Child with SS Francis and Lawrence and members of the confraternity, with SS Rufinus and Victorinus under the arch.  It is signed “Cola pictor”.

There is an important Umbrian inscription in the garden, on a stone that formed the  architrave of a nearby city gate.  Unfortunately, it cannot be seen from the gate.

In the garden (not visible) is an architrave that probably came from a nearby gate in the Roman walls (ca. 200 BC).  It contains an inscription in the Umbrian language that is the earliest ever to be found in Assisi.

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