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History of
Assisi (Back to
Assisi main information page)
Of Umbrian
origins, the settlement became a Roman municipium under the name
of Asisium. Until the 13th century the extension of the town
coincided with the Roman one. Taken by Totila in 545, it then
became part of the Longobard and Frankish Duchy of Spoleto. In
the 11th century a free commune is constituted: being of
Ghibelline faith it always lived in opposition to the Guelfish
Perugia.
As Perugia
tried to interfere with the liberation struggle of Assisi and
among the prisoners taken by Perugia was a certain 22-years-old
Giovanni di Bernardone, called Francesco.
He was born
in the winter between 1181 and 1182 as the child of a wealthy
textile tradesman, Pietro di Bernardone, whose family came from
Lucca, and his Proven?l wife Pica.
After the
captivity in Perugia, Francesco decided to make a reputation for
knighthood participating in the crusade of Walter de Brienne,
but an illness forced him to renounce already at Spoleto.
In the
meantime, in Assisi in 1197 was christened the future emperor
Frederick II, Francesco decided to change his life, renouncing
to the riches and the eases of his family fortune and praying at
San Damiano had the vision which ordered him to restore the
Church (1205).
In 1208
Francesco founded his order of the Grey-Friars. After his
encounter with Chiara di Favarone di Offreduccio, daughter of a
noble Assisi family, in 1212 he founded for her a second order,
the Clarisse's.
Finally, in
1221 he founded in Cannara the Third Order (a lay-order). In
1224 he
received
at La Verna the stigmata and in 1226 expired at the Porziuncola.
Only two years later he was proclaimed saint and the day after
Pope Gregory IX laid the foundation stone of the church and the
convent planned by Brother Elias, a companion of the Saint. Also
St. Clare was canonised two years after her death of 1253 and a
year later begun the construction of the church in her
honour.
In 1316
Assisi expanded its town-walls, incorporating the convent and
church of St. Francis, the Benedictine convent of S. Peter and
the town quarter Borgo Aretino.
The decline
of Assisi begun after the black death in 1348.
Since the
14th century and until the 16th century the two major Assisi
families, the
Nepis
and the Fiumi continued to fight each other bitterly, although
the town was dominated for long periods by several ?signorie? (Biordo
Michelotti, Broglio di Trinci, Galeazzo Visconti, Braccio
Fortebraccio, Francesco Sforza, Jacopo Piccinino). Only under
the reign of Pope Pius II Piccolomini (1458-64) the domination
of the Church over Assisi has been definitely restored.
.
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