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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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.

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Assisi is a hill town in Umbria, in central Italy. It is the birthplace of San Francesco (1181-1226), one of the patron saints of Italy. The basilica of San Francesco is an imposing church on 2 levels consecrated in 1253. The 13th century frescoes depicting the life of San Francesco have been attributed, among others, to Giotto and Cimabue. The crypt houses the stone sarcophagus of the saint.

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