Assisi - Basilica of San Francesco

2018

The basilica of San Francesco is located in Assisi, it is the place that since 1230 preserves and guards the mortal remains of the seraphic saint. Wanted by Pope Gregory IX as specialis ecclesia, it was awarded by the same Pontiff the title of Caput et Mater of the Minorite Order and at the same time entrusted in perpetuity to the same friars. In the complex history that marked the evolution of the Order, the basilica (and the adjoining Sacred Convent) was always guarded by the so-called "community friars", the group that later went on to form the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. At the sepulchral church of the Basilica where the altar on the tomb of the saint was erected, on November 19, 1585, the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V, with the bull Supernae dispositionis, established the Archconfraternity of the Cordigeri. In 1754 Benedict XIV elevated it to the dignity of patriarchal Basilica (since 2006 "Papal Basilica") and Papal Chapel. In the year 2000, together with other Franciscan sites in the district, the basilica was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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Assisi - The New Church

The Chiesa Nuova is a Catholic place of worship in Assisi, located in the homonymous square. Already in a document of 1398, a small church is mentioned built on the place that tradition identifies as "the paternal and birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi" which was an important stage of pilgrimages in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi. In 1610, at the behest of the King of Spain Philip III, a new church in Baroque style was built to replace the medieval one on a project by Rufino da Cerchiara.

Cascia. The sanctuary of Santa Rita

The sanctuary of Santa Rita da Cascia is a religious complex, made up of various Cascia structures within which Santa Rita is venerated.

Campania Felix. Sunset

Ancient Campania (often also identified as Campania Felix or even Ager Campanus) originally indicated the territory of the city of Capua Antica in the Roman period, and later also the plains of the various neighboring municipalities. It was a very vast territory when compared with the other Italic cities of the Roman and pre-Roman periods. It stretched from the slopes of Mount Massico (in the north) to the south of the Phlegrean Fields and the Vesuvian area. Initially it also included the ager Falernus, then it was greatly scaled down from Rome due to the alliance of the city of Capua with Annibale. Thanks to the fertility of the soil also due to the presence of the Volturno river, it deserved the name of Campania Felix.

Ship Amerigo Vespucci

The Amerigo Vespucci is a sailing ship of the Navy built as a training ship for the training of officer cadets of the normal roles of the Naval Academy. The Vespucci was designed together with her twin Cristoforo Colombo (although of slightly different dimensions) in 1930 by the engineer Francesco Rotundi, lieutenant colonel of the naval engineers and director of the Royal shipyards of Castellammare di Stabia. The training ship was launched on February 22, 1931 in Castellammare di Stabia. She left fully prepared on 2 July for Genoa where, on 15 October 1931, she received the battle flag in the hands of her first commander, Augusto Radicati di Marmorito. Her task was to support the Cristoforo Colombo in the training activity, and she was placed in the School Ships Division together with the Colombo and another minor ship, making various training cruises in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic; at the end of the Second World War, due to the effect of international agreements, the Cristoforo Colombo had to be sold together with other units to the USSR, as compensation for war damages.

Assisi - Church of San Damiano

The church of San Damiano is an important Catholic place of worship in Assisi, located on the southern outskirts of the city. The first biographer of Saint Francis, Tommaso da Celano, in the Life before him, narrates that in 1205 Saint Francis of Assisi after wandering in the countryside, enters the church of San Damiano, in the countryside of Assisi. Praying in front of the crucifix present inside the church, and after having insistently asked for light for his path, faith and hope, he hears him speak and ask him three times to "repair his house which is in ruins". This event will have a profound impact on the life of the saint who, right here, in the last years of his life, composed the Canticle of creatures. The crucifix has a very particular aspect: Christ on the cross does not show suffering, but seems almost to stand up to communicate a message of hope with open arms. Between 1211 and 1212 St. Clare, following a prophecy of St. Francis, founded an order of cloisters who resided there until 1260. The same church, according to Catholic historiography, was the protagonist of the main miracles of the saint: the multiplication of bread, the gift of oil, the escape of the Saracens from the cloister, some exorcisms and healings, the appearance of the cross on bread in front of the pope.

Caves of Castellana

The Castellana Caves rise less than two kilometers from the town in the south-eastern Murge at 330 m a.s.l., a limestone plateau formed in the upper Cretaceous about ninety - one hundred million years ago. The tourist visit winds for 1.5 km but the longer itinerary takes two hours and develops for 3 km, between caves and chasms. The natural entrance consists of a huge open pit, about sixty meters deep, called the Grave. From the Grave to the Black Grotto or the Capitoline Wolf, after passing the Cavernone dei Monumenti, passing the Calza and then the Caverna della Civetta, crossing the Corridor of the Serpent, the Cavern of the Precipice and the Piccolo Paradiso, one runs along the long Corridor of the Desert also known as the underground Grand Canyon (of a reddish color due to the presence in this stretch of iron minerals) you reach the Cavern of the Tower of Pisa, the dripping pond, the Red Corridor, the Dome cave and finally passing by the lake of Crystals, we arrive in the bright White Grotto. All made up of stalactite and stalagmite concretions and galleries interspersed with the sudden opening of caves.

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