Private Tour of Assisi and Cascia from Rome with Chauffeur

Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the basilica of St. Francis was built under the direction of Brother Elias, vicar general and architect of the order, starting in 1228, just two years after the saint's death, as a place designed to receive his remains.Pope Gregory IX laid the first stone was on July 17, 1228, the day after the canonization of St. Francis, in the place previously used for executions and burials of criminals. According to tradition, Francis himself, on his deathbed, indicated this spot to his companions as the place for his burial.

The Saint born in 1381 in the near Roccaporena and baptized with the name of "Margherita", on desire of the father got married renouncing, in a first time, to enter in an Augustinian convent according to what were really her most intimate aspirations. After 18 years of a difficult and violent wedding, her exemplary conduct led the husband to convert himself. In a period of communal battles the husband was killed by the family of the Casciani; "Margherita", in order to avoid bloody and never ending vendetta, forgave her proper compatriots and was welcomed in the Monastery of the Augustinian Sisters of Santa Maria Maddalena. In 1442, during the night of Holy Friday, she received the stigmata from a thornbush of the crown of the Crucifix , that according to the tradition, embedded itself in her forehead.

Built on a grandiose scale, the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli is the seventh largest Christian church. Its magnificence may be at odds with the simplicity preached by St Francis himself but the flocks of pilgrims coming to visit the primitive Porziuncola chapel and the Cappella del Transito called for a building that was able to accomodate the faithful. The Porziuncola chapel was given to St Francis by the Benedictines, and is important because it was the initial nucleus from which the Franciscan order was born. The Cappella del Transito is the place where the saint died on October 4th 1226.