The origins of Assisi are lost in the mists of time and legend.
The town was founded by the Umbrians and was later an Etruscan and Roman city. Following the downfall of the Roman Empire the town became part of the Longobard Dukedom of Spoleto. Assisi was later a free commune, was subsequently ruled by a number of powerful families such as the Sforzas, the Piccininos and the Viscontis and was annexed to the Pontifical State under which it remained until the proclamation of the Italian Kingom.
Assisi’s popularity is tightly bound up with the life of St. Francis who was born here in 1182. The son of well-off parents Francis later devoted his entire life to assisting lepers and to penance. Three different Franciscan orders originated from the primeval community that gathered around the Saint and which the very same Francis gave a “rule” to later approved by pope Honorius III. ST. Francis composed in 1325 the celebrated “Canticle of the Creatures” and died in 1326 in the “Porziuncola” infirmary, today a world-famous pilgrimage destination. St. Francis’s body was buried in the crypt of the Basilica built, in his honour between 1228 and 1253 on designs by Frate Elia Coppi. The Basilica is a master-piece of gothic architecture. The interior is enriched with frescoes by some of the greatest artists of the 14th century: Simone Martini, Cimabue, Lorenzetti and Giotto, who depicted in 28 splendid frescoes the life of the Saint.