Assisi - Walk II
From Piazza del Comune to San Damiano, Santa Chiara,Santa Maria Maggiore and San Pietro |
Leave Piazza del Comune through Via Arco del Priori. The entrance on the right at number 2 leads to a vault [under which palace ???], with its pavement at the level of the Roman forum.
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| Pietro di Bernardone and Madonna Pica |
Piazza della Chiesa Nuova on the left was known as Platea Macelli in the Middle Ages because a number of butcher's shops were located here. It is now named for the Chiesa Nuova, which was built on the presumed site of the house in which St Francis grew up.
The bronze statue (1984) to the right of the church depicts Pietro di Bernardone and Madonna Pica, the parents of St Francis. Madonna Pica holds the chains from which she released St Francis while Pietro was away, and Pietro holds the clothes that St Francis discarded when he subsequently renounced his inheritance. Both faces display a great sense of loss.
Continue to the end of Vicolo Superiore di Sant' Antonio (to the left of the church) and the Oratorio di San Francesco Piccolino.Oratorio di San Francesco Piccolino (13th century)This oratory was first documented in 1286. Since the early 14th century, it has been venerated (somewhat improbably) as the stable next to the Bernadone house in which St Francis was born. The frescoes (14th century) on the vaults were rediscovered when the oratory was restored in 1926. |
Return to Via Arco del Priori and continue to the junction with Via Sant' Antonio. Take a short detour to the right, to see Palazzo Giampè (17th century) [at number ??? on the left], which stands on the site of a Roman domus. Although the domus is only occasionally open to the public, you can make a "virtual visit" on the website of the Soprintendenza per I Beni Archeologici dell' Umbria.
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| Fresco from the cubiculum Courtesy of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria |
Roman Domus (1st century BC)The remains of this domus were unearthed only recently. Three rooms
have been excavated: the diaeta (sitting room), the triclinium (dining
room) and a cubiculum (bedroom). They all have superb frescoes in the
so-called 3rd Pompeian style (that is, in the style of the wall
paintings of Pompeii in the period 20 BC-62 AD). These frescoes represent rare
examples of the work of Roman artists in Umbria. Particularly evocative is a small painted tablet with a scene of a married couple on the north wall of the cubiculum. |
Return to the junction and the Convento di Sant' Antonio immediately beyond on the right. Continue along Via Sant' Antonio and then ahead along Via Sant' Agnese, passing a fine stretch of Roman wall on the left. Although this might have been part of the city wall, it is more likely that it simply sustained a terrace.
 Portella di San Giorgio |
Return to Piazza Santa Chiara and the church of Santa Chiara, which houses the relics of St Clare. However, it is logical to visit St Clare's own monastery of San Damiano before visiting Santa Chiara.
Detour to San Damiano
Walk along the left side of Santa Chiara and continue though the Arco di Santa Chiara (or dei Pucci).
Arco di Santa Chiara (1260)This gate was part of an extension to the city wall that was
built in 1260 to protect the Monastero di Santa Chiara. This was the site of the so-called Trivio di San Giorgio, which was
named for the parish church of San Giorgio and an adjoining school and
hospice, all of which belonged to the canons of San Rufino. This was probably where "the people" attacked the men who were bringing the sarcophagus of St Rufinus
into Assisi in ca. 1050 at the behest of Bishop Ugone. The Bishop's
men were trying to take it to Santa Maria Maggiore(to the left), but "the people"
diverted it to the shrine of San Rufino (to the right). A tablet [where ???] on the gate was removed from the Duomo of Arezzo as a trophy of the war that Assisi fought in alliance with Perugia in 1335. The suburb beyond, which was enclosed in an outer wall in 1316, was renamed Borgo Aretino in honour of this victory. |
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Arco di Santa Chiara |
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Church and convent |
Continue along Via Borgo Aretino. Look back over the terrace to the right from a point opposite Hotel Belvedere for a lovely view of the apse and campanile of Santa Chiara, with the convent wall to the left.
Continue to the heavily fortified Porta Nuova (1316), which marks the end of the suburb that was incorporated into the city at this time. The seat of the Confraternita di Santa Chiara (which was was first documented in 1329) is just before the gate, at number 12 - 4 on the right.
A sign outside Porta Nuova indicates the footpath to the right to San Damiano, which passes the car park and then goes under one road and across another to the Via San Damiano.
The Cappella di San Feliciano is on the left, next to the remains of a Roman mausoleum (1st century AD). It is likely that other funerary monuments were erected on either side of the track in Roman times.
Cappella di San Feliciano [date ???]This chapel was built on the site of an ancient church that had in turn been built on the place where St Felician of Foligno planted a Crucifix when he was expelled from Assisi after preaching in the forum in the early 3rd century. If you shine a torch through the window, you can see a number of wooden panels on the altar wall that the Mary Berkley (the English owner of the ex-Oratorio di San Lorenzo) painted in 1948. |
Continue through the olive groves to San Damiano.
Retrace your steps to Piazza Santa Chiara, following the path taken by the procession that carried St Clare's body to San Giorgio in 1253. The present church of Santa Chiara was built on this site shortly afterwards.
Leave Piazza Santa Chiara by Via Sant' Agnese, with a lovely view of the campanile of Santa Maria Maggiore (see below) on the left. Note the arch of Vicolo Arco di Sant' Antonio on the right: a fresco (early 16th century) by Tiberio d' Assisi was detached from it and is now in the Pinacoteca. The ex- Oratorio di San Crispino is ahead on the left.
Take a short detour by walking down the steps on the left of the oratory and out of the Roman city. This road offers a fine view of the church and convent of Santa Chiara. Turn left down another flight to the Fonti di Moiano.
Fonti di Moiano (restored in 1294)The name of the fountain and the surrounding district derives from the Latin Mons Iani, which suggests that a Roman temple to Janus probably stood nearby. A fountain on this site was first recorded in 1155. An inscription [where ???] records that the Capitano del Popolo, Guido di Giacomo da Cortona commissioned its restoration of 1294. The shoemakers who lived in this area were required to maintain the adjacent washhouse, which probably dates to the late 15th century. Tiberio d' Assisi executed frescoes (15th century) of SS Francis, Rufinus and Victorinus on the back wall of the fountain: the outer figures have been lost but the central figure survives in the Pinacoteca. |
Retrace your steps, enjoying a fine view of the presbytery of Santa Maria Maggiore (see below), with a stretch of the Roman wall beneath it. Take another short detour by turning left along Via Porta Moiano, which runs between the Roman and medieval walls to Porta Moiano (14th century). Walk through the gate and look back at the partly Roman wall on the left that encloses the garden of the Palazzo Vescovile (see below). The concrete foundations were originally part of a Roman cistern.
Retrace your steps once more to the Oratorio di San Crispino and turn left along Via Sant' Agnese, which leads to the Piazza del Vescovado. This was the site of a Roman necropolis, and a number of cinerary urns that were found here are now in the Museo Civico. Palazzo del Cardinale is on the left, with Palazzetto Vannola opposite.
Palazzo del Cardinale (1449)Cardinal Bartolomeo Roverella, who was
the governor of Assisi and Perugia, built this palace on the site of a Roman domus. His
arms are over the door. The palace later passed to the Fiumi family. |
Palazzetto Vannola (17th century)The name of Ignatius Vannola, the governor of Assisi in 1625, is inscribed on the façade of the palace. It later became the "Leone d' Oro", the first hotel to open in Assisi, which probably took its name from the relief of a lion [on the portal]. |
The main part of the piazza is on the other side of Via Sant' Agnese, with the Fontana del Lione (1559) at its centre. The fountain is so-called because the water originally came out through the jaws of a bronze lion, but a column with a lion in relief and a cone on top has replaced it.
Santa Maria Maggiore on the left stands on the site of the so-called House of Propertius. Palazzo Vescovile is in front of you."
"House of Propertius" (late 1st century BC)The remains of a rich Roman domus were discovered under Santa Maria Maggiore in 1864 and excavated more extensively in 1954. The domus (which is accessed from the crypt of Santa Maria Maggiore) is made up of three communicating rooms, two of which have mosaic floors and wall frescoes. The vaulted portico beyond probably originally enclosed a garden. A long section of the wall of the portico survives, and is covered with fine frescoes (ca. 70 AD) of plants and birds, illustrated in the website of the Soprintendenza per I Beni Archeologici dell' Umbria. (The frescoes are in the so-called 4th Pompeian style, which is style of wall painting at Pompeii in the period 62-79 AD, the final period before the city was destroyed.) A fragment of graffiti (possibly 4th century AD) on the wall translates: "I kissed the house of the Muse", which has given rise to the tradition that the house belonged to the Roman poet Sextus Propertius (died ca. 16 BC).
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Palazzo Vescovile (17th century)The bishops of Assisi continued to reside in a palace on this site even after San Rufino became the acknowledged cathedral of Assisi in ca. 1030. St Francis relinquished his possessions before Bishop Guido I outside the earlier palace on the site in ca. 1208, and stayed here in 1226 before he was carried to the Portiuncula to die. Bishop Marcello Crescenzi began the present palace in 1612, and Cardinal Bishop Paolo Emilio Rondanini later extended it. The bronze statue of St Francis outside the palace is a copy of the statue (1881) that the sculptor Giovanni Dupré gave to San Rufino on the 700th anniversary of the birth of St Francis. |
If the gate to the side of Santa Maria Maggiore is open, walk through
it to see the exterior wall of the apse and the crypt below. The Roman
wall (2nd century BC) serves to terrace the garden, and the steps on
the left lead down to a small portal with the Latin inscription (2nd century BC) "Iter precar
(ium)" on the outer side. This seems to indicate that passage was
granted "by prayer" or on request. (There is a plaster cast of this inscription in the Museo Civico).
Return to the Piazza Vescovado and leave it by Via Giovanni di Bonino. The entrance to the Monastero di San Quirico is at number 5 on the right.
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Churches of San Paolo |
The road continues as Via Sant' Apollinare to the churches of San Paolo delle Abbadesse (with its façade parallel to the street) and Sant' Apollinare (with its façade at right angles to it). These two churches and their respective convents were incorporated as the Monastero delle Benedettine di San Giuseppe in 1897. The ex-church of Sant' Apollinare now forms part of the convent.
Continue along Via Sant' Apollinare. A long stretch of the Roman wall can be seen high up in the gardens on the right as it swings away from the 14th century circuit towards Piazzetta Garibaldi (see below).
Monastero di Santa Coletta (1909 - 26)The convent is named for St Colette Boilet (1381 - 1447), the author of the so-called Colettine reform of the Poor Clares, under which a number of convents in France, Germany and the Low Countries returned to St Clare's rule of 1253. The movement had almost no impact in Italy until the early 20th century, when Abbess Marie Alexis and a small group of nuns from Paray-le-Monial travelled to Rome to escape a difficult political situation in France. After a number of further difficulties, the small community settled here, in what was originally an olive grove. The church was built in 1909 - 11. Further construction was hampered by the First World War: the construction of most of the convent was carried out in 1922 - 6. |
If the doors to the vacant land beyond Santa Coletta are open, you can get a good view of the domed presbytery of the Abbazia di San Pietro and its campanile. The entrances to the church and adjacent museum are in Piazza di San Pietro, further along on the left.
On leaving the church, continue along Via Borgo San Pietro, which leads to the Porta di San Pietro in the 14th century walls. The neo-Romanesque Casa Capello (1921) is on the left. Stay inside the walls and turn sharp right along Via Monsignor Niccolini, which is named for Bishop Giuseppe Placido Niccolini. Take the stepped Vicola Illuminata (the first left) and then Vicolo di Via Fontebella.
Turn right into Via Fontebella, which runs along the line of the ancient road from Perugia. The Ospededale della Confraternita di San Pietro (1354) was at number 23 on the right until its suppression in 1772. The street is named for the Fonte Marcella, which is further along on the right, at the foot of the rear wall of the Monte Frumentario (see Walk III). The terrace opposite offers a panoramic view.
Fonte Marcella (Fontebella) (1556-7)Marcello Tuto, the papal governor erected this travertine fountain, in which water flows from three lions' heads that are set in a Doric frieze. The arms above are those of Pope Paul IV. |
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The road continues to Piazzetta Garibaldi, close to the point at which the road from Perugia entered the city through Porta Urbica, the only gate in the Roman walls that is documented. The remains of this gate in Palazzo Fiumi-Roncalli on the right are not accessible to the public.
Palazzo Fiumi-Roncalli (17th century)This palace stands on a site
that was once owned by the Fiumi family, which was the leading
Ghibelline family in Assisi in the 14th-16th centuries. The
plaque of the façade of the current palace commemorates Garibaldis
stay in Assisi in 1848, an event also commemorated in the name of the
Piazzetta. The corbel at the right hand corner of the palace may have belonged to a 13th century gate that replaced Porta Urbica. |
Take a short detour past the palace into Via Antonio Cristofani, to see the adjoining Oratorio di San Francesco.
Return to Piazzetta Garibaldi and turn sharply right along Via E. Brizi, which follows the line of the Roman road that led to the forum. This becomes Via Giotto. The neo-Gothic Casa Leonelli (1926) at number 1 on the right has an ancient statue of a lion on the low wall in front of the entrance.
Turn right across Piazza Giuseppe Sbaraglini into Via Bernardo da Quintavale. The house of Brother Bernardo da Quintavale, an early follower of St Francis, is at number 10, opposite the church of San Gregorio.
San Gregorio (13th century)The Confraternita di San Gregorio, which was probably the first to be formed in Assisi, originally met in nearby Via Portico. Bishop Teobaldo Pontano arranged for its meeting place to be moved here in 1325, and it remained here until the confraternity was abolished in 1772. A processional standard of St Gregory the Great enthroned (1468) by l' Alunno that belonged to the confraternity is now in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. The church, which is sometimes open for concerts, has a copy of the Deposition (1602-4) by Caravaggio on the altar. (The original, which was painted for the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome, is now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana). |
Turn left along Via San Gregorio, which leads up to Via Portico, and turn right into the Piazza del Comune, where the walk ends.
Return to the home page on Assisi.