The Eremo delle Carceri
The Eremo delle Carceri is a fascinating place that can be found partway up Mount Subasio, starting from Assisi. The hermitage is built around a cave where St. Francisco used to take refuge for praying.
In 1215 the Benedictines donated this place to him. The hermitage was enlarged from its original architecture by Bernardino da Siena in 1400.
You enter in a small triangular courtyard with a well in its center. The legend narrates that water flowed thanks to a miracle of St. Francis. From the parapet behind you can observe a beautiful view through a gorge that opens onto the plain of Spoleto.
The fifteenth century church rises in front of the courtyard; it preserves above the altar a fresco of the Umbrian-Senese school of the mid-15th century (Crucifixion); in the altar stone, another fresco of the 1500s with the coat of arms of the Monti di Pietà; on the back wall is a small fourteenth-century stained-glass window of French production.