Assisi
October 3, 2003
Home Town of the Saints
Assisi
is the home town of San Francesco and Santa Chiara, also known under their
Spanish names San Francisco and Santa Clara. As a regular commuter between
two towns carrying these names, I thought I should see where it all started.
I got
there on the first day of the Festa di San Francesco, the main religious event
of the town, but well before the festivities started. That probably was a good
thing, since it was quite crowded already. This is clearly a town that lives
off pilgrims and tourists. There are some advantages to that however: Assisi
was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1997, but there were no damaged buildings
in sight. On the other hand, quite a few of the medieval-style buildings looked
quite fresh.
The town has a very picturesque location on a hill side, which makes for some pretty steep streets. On top of it all are the ruins of the old fortress, partially closed for reconstruction, but otherwise providing excellent views.
Santa Chiara
is on display in the crypt of the church that carries her name. I didn’t visit
chairman Mao in Beijing, but here the lines are a bit shorter. The crypt of
the Basilica di San Francesco is a far more comfortable place - no bodies on
display, but instead a pleasantly lit cave-like cellar with benches to rest
for a while.