Top 10 Historic Sites in Assisi, Umbria

The retreat high in the mountains above Assisi where St. Francis frequently stayed to meditate and pray.

Built onto the original Chapel of St. George, this Cathedral is where St. Clare of Assisi was buried in a crypt in 1872.

HISTORIC HOUSE IN ASSISI The loggia of the Comacini Masters is located in the charming little street of Vicolo di S. Andrea just a short distance away from the Basilica of St. Francis. It features all modern amenities , yet maintains the medieval atmosphere that has distinguished it for centuries HISTORY Modern - day Via San Francesco is located in the area that was known as the "village of the city of Assisi" - or simply "the Village" until the construction of the basilica dedicated to the saint . Towards the middle of the thirteenth century, this road was referred to indocuments as the"strata per quam ytur ad Sanctum Franciscum" ("the road leading to the church of St. Francis") or just "strata" or "Istrata Sancti Francisci" ("road of St.Francis"). It was also Known as "strata magna" or "great road". Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, new houses and craftsmen's workshops were built along this road, as well as "hospitals"("hospices") for the pilgrims who came to Assisi in growing numbers to pray at the tomb of "The poor One". One of these new houses was the one now located at XX on the modern-day Via San Francesco. Known as "the House of the Comacini Masters", It is divided into two stories (including the ground floor) divided by a thin cornice.pergamena It has two doorways (the original "round one with an ogival exstrados" and the other one dating to the fifteenth century, which is rectangular in shape) and two windows "with a depressed arch and ogival extrados" on the upper floor, which have three corbels near them. A coat of arms with an open compass and a flower is sculpted between two festoons: this is the insignia of Comacini Masters or in other words, of the skilled workers (mason, stone-cutters, stone-dressers) who lived here while working to build or repair churches, palaces, houses and bridges. Many of them came from "the parts around Lombardy" , particulary Como, and for this reason they were referred to as "Comacini". There is another coat of arms set into the wall in a section that just out from the house to the right of the facade. It bears the heads of two lions and three balls, with the year 1477 inscribed it. This was the period in which the "Comacini" were most numerous in Assisi, as extensively documented by the city deeds, the debit and credit books, and the receipt books of the commune of Assisi of the sixteenth century. Since it was located near the impressive monastery and basilica complex of the St. Francis, where these skilled workers were often employed, this was undoubtedly the building that is listed as "the hose of the Lombards living in Assisi" in one of the documents found in the Archives of the Sacro Convento. Thus, we can confirm what was also sustained in 1895 by Alfonso Brizi, a renowned archaeologist and historian from Assisi: "This was the house or studio of the Comacini Masters , in other words, it was their "loggia" or "loja", ....a room in which the stones were dressed, and it also held the house hold goods and school in which this valuable trade was handed down to others ." (Francesco Santucci)