Today has been a day of few photographs, because most of the places we have visited have forbidden them, sadly.
We started the day at the Basilica of St Francis
It looks like one church, but it is in fact two churches, and you are looking at the upper one, which stands on top of the lower one. You access the lower one by going down a slope which you can’t see in the photo, behind that row of strange figures on the left. That’s where we started.
We had an excellent guide, who spoke about the paintings very eloquently and made us see things we had never thought of before. But he was very strict about no photos, so I couldn’t take any. This was a real shame, because there are over 1000 square yards of frescos here and most of them are brilliant!
The first building started 2 years after the death of St Francis in 1226. It is probable that there always were 2 churches planned, the lower one being for Francis’ tomb, and to accommodate pilgrims. The upper one was for regular worship. The two churches were built quite quickly, within 25 years and the Basilica was consecrated in 1253. It seems likely there was little time for sculptural decoration, and the plan seems to have been that the vast walls would be decorated with frescos painted by some of the greatest painters of the age.
The lower church is built in the Romanesque style - we would call it Norman - with rounded arches and a lower ceiling. Every wall is covered with fresco. I hope to buy a book and if I can photograph some of the plates, I’ll post them here. Some are by an unknown artist, referred to only as the Maestro di San Francesco, very early, with a date around 1260. There seems to be just one down here by Cimabue, dated about 1280. Some later ones, between 1315 and 1320 are from the workshop of Giotto, and some of a similar date are by Simone Martini - as well as some of his in one of the transepts, there’s a whole side chapel of his frescos, done just after the earlier ones, depicting the life of St Martin. I was particularly glad to have the opportunity to see these, he’s one of my favourites. There’s a whole cycle of the Life of Christ by Pietro Lorenzetti, also done between between 1315 and 1320.
We went down into the crypt to see the tomb of Francis, and we also saw his old ragged and patched robe which was preserved after his death. Tradition says it was patched by St Clare, and that she used pieces of her own robe.
We went up into the upper church, which is more airy and light, in a more gothic architectural style with soaring pointed arches so the ceiling is much higher. Some of the frescos are by Cimabue and his school, and those in the nave are mostly by Giotto and his school. There are cycles from the Old and the New Testaments, and from the life of Saint Francis.
We spent more than an hour and a half in the Basilica, and then had to rush back to the vehicles to go to Spello in time to see some very beautiful frescos by Pinturicchio before the church closed.
Spello is not far from Assisi, on a hillside in the shadow of Monte Subasio. It is largely built of the same pink stone as Assisi. Like Assisi, it was an Umbrian town. It became a Roman colony, and much later still, it was sacked by the Lombards and became part of the Duchy of Spoleto. Later still it became a private estate.
We were driven part of the way up the steep main street to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore where we went to look at the Pinturicchio frescos. They were painted around 1500, and are generally felt to be his finest works. They are certainly beautiful, but once again, photos were not allowed. So I found this on the Internet instead.
There was an illustrated book nearby, so I photographed that, but it was very shiny and caught the light, so it had shiny patches, and, being a book, there was a crease in the middle of the picture. The church itself is mostly behind screens and most of the interior can’t be seen as it’s being renovated, which I didn’t mind as it’s very Baroque. However, there was no bookshop, so I couldn’t buy the book or even a postcard, so the photo above was the best I could do. As well as the Annunciation, there’s also a wonderful Nativity, with very ordinary looking shepherds, one with very bad teeth and one with rather collapsed cheeks who probably had no teeth at all. The other scene is a Dispute in the Temple, with Mary and Joseph at one side looking very cross with their son.
It being just after 12 after that, most people went to eat, and Paul and I went to look at the Roman Mosaics just outside the town walls, where a large Roman villa was discovered with many of mosaics in quite a good state of preservation. This one is almost complete.
It is in the more private part of the house which opened on to the peristyle, and depicts local flora and fauna. I particularly liked the fact that some of the wall decoration had also survived; it’s at the top left of my photo, red diamonds on a yellow core background.
There were a lot of mosaics to see, so they had to throw us out at closing time, 1 o’clock, and we found our way back into the town by a rather roundabout way. We went around the outside of the walls and up several exceptionally lengthy stairs back to the historical centre of the town where we didn’t have long to have a very quick snack before it was time to get back to the vehicles. We found them near the old Roman Gate, the Porto Consolare, where we also stopped for ice cream.
I believe this gate dates from the Augustinian period, 1st century AD. I don’t know if you can see it, but we particularly liked the old olive tree growing out of the top of the tower. It’s clearly been there for years and years.
Our next destination was the medieval village of Collepino, which started us on a lovely scenic trip into the Monte Subasio National Park. We wound our way up into the hills, round horrifying hairpin bends until we reached the isolated village. It has been heavily restored but is quite charming, with very steep streets far too narrow for cars.
We walked to the far side to admire the view, and back down again to our vehicles. Near the entrance gate are two big fountain basins clearly used for washing at one time - the public washhouse!
After a really hair-raising ride round more steep mountain sides and hairpin bends, we arrived at our next destination, a hermitage called Eremo delle Carceri. The name came about because Franciscan friars used to lock themselves away here to pray. There is a small 15th century church here, as well as the cave where St Francis used to go to pray and meditate.
I started out going down to the cave, but the stairs were so narrow and steep and the door so narrow and low that I found it too claustrophobic and couldn’t manage to force myself to go through. So I went back upstairs and sat for a moment chatting to another couple of people who had similarly found it too claustrophobic. We sat in the monks stalls facing the small altar.
Once again, photos were not allowed, but I took one anyway.
Paul said the cave had a polished stone floor and a low ceiling and was very small, similar to the area of a king size bed, so I’m quite glad I didn’t go down there.
We then set off for the church of San Damiano, described as one of the most significant places in the life of Saint Francis. It was here he heard Christ speaking to him from the crucifix, telling him to repair his church. So Francis undertook the restoration of San Damiano. He brought St Clare here, and she and her followers founded a convent and lived here. She and her followers became known as the Poor Clares.
This was yet another place that said photos were forbidden, but I sneaked some, particularly after I saw a nun taking some!
This is one of the convent chapels
I rather liked the frescos here.
We passed through the nuns’ dormitory and noted the corner where St Clare died, then we went downstairs to the cloister, which was quite charming.
I have no idea whether it would have been quite so charming in St Clare’s day!
This was the nuns refectory
The tables and benches are original, so 800 years old. The pot of flowers marks St Clare’s place.
Our last visit of the day was to Santa Maria degli Angeli, another place connected with Saint Francis.
It was built at the end of the 16th century, and is the 7th largest church in the world, according to my guide book. It was in fact built to house another church inside it, the little chapel where St Francis lived and which was the centre of the early Franciscan order. It was felt that the huge church was needed to receive the vast hoards of pilgrims who wanted to visit, but it does seem odd, such a huge church with the tiny one inside it.
Again no photos are allowed, but my back was painful after all the slow meandering about, so I sat down in a pew, and noticed that there were no brown robed Franciscans looking my way, so I was able to sneak this photo.
Also inside this the huge church is the old cell where the saint died in 1226.
By now if was after 5, we had been sightseeing hard since 9 am and were exhausted so we returned to base to rest and, in my case, write all this.
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