Franciscan Sanctuary of Rivotorto

The Sanctuary of Rivotorto is 4.5 kilometers away from Assisi, in the plain lying below the town.

This imposing building, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was built to incorporate within it the Sacred Hovel, an important Franciscan site. Francis had chosen this small area, outside the city walls, to live in prayer and poverty with his first companions, and it was here that the Minorite order was founded and the first Rule was written.

The commission to build a small church to protect the hovel was given in 1445 to Francesco Saccardo. In the 16th century, Pope Sixtus V wanted to build a larger complex to replace the existing one, which was in poor condition. Work began in 1600, under the direction of Friar Gesualdo, and was finished forty years later.
In 1853 a violent earthquake caused serious damage to the church, which was almost completely destroyed; the hovel, however, remained unharmed. The present-day neo-Gothic style sanctuary, designed by Bernardo Tini, was built over the rubble.

The gabled façade in pink Mt. Subasio stone is divided into three parts by pilasters that frame the three portals and the oculi. In the upper part, the tympanum is decorated with a mosaic depicting two episodes from the life of Francis: the Vision of the Chariot of Fire and the Passage of Emperor Otto IV. Above the portal there is an inscription, “hic primordia fratrum minorum”, which refers to the site’s connection with the Friars Minor (Conventuals), and a plaque with a bull of Pope Benedict XIV.

The interior has a nave and side aisles divided by pillars, and a polygonal apse with an altar, above which is a crucifix that is a small copy of the Blue Crucifix, now kept in the Treasure Museum in Assisi.
Inside the nave is the stone hovel, which was returned to its original appearance with restoration work done in 1926, on the occasion of the seventh centenary of Francis’s death. The restoration eliminated the elements added after the 13th century, in particular the 19th-century decorations . On the same occasion, the walls were hung with twelve 17th-century canvases painted by the Cesare Sermei depicting episodes of the first Franciscan community in Rivotorto.
Another important work found on the inside of the façade, is Saint Michael the Archangel Fighting with the Devil, painted in the 17th century by Domenico Mattei: originally in the Basilica of Saint Francis, the canvas was relocated here in the late 19th century.