Orari Visita:
Ora Solare: 8.00 > 13.00 - 14.00 > 18.00
Ora Legale: 8.00 > 13.00 - 15.00 > 19.00
Settimana Santa: 7.00 > 19.00
The medieval square is located on a Roman terrace bordered on the upper side by a long structure wall still visible under the pavement and inside the church. According to a ret hypothesis this was the Forum, of which so far no ruins have been identified. According to an unconfirmed tradition, a small basilica was built on the site around 412 A.D. to t the body of St. Rufino, the first bishop of Assisi who was martyred in 238 A.D. at the Chiascio River near Costano. St. Pier Damiani writes in one of his sermons of the controversy originating between Bishop Ugone and the people of Assisi over the destination of sarcophagus containing the body of the ·Saint. Opposed to the wishes of the bishop, who wanted it moved to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Maggiore, the people demanded a contest. This resulted in the prodigious victory of the seven champions of the people who pulled the heavy marble coffin in a tug-of-war against the sixty pulling it for the bishop. me then allowed the church to be rebuilt shortly before 1029 when a rectory was already functioning next to it and, before 1036, invested it with the title of Cathedral. Of the Basilica built by Ugone, which occupied a large portion of the church square, there remain the crypt below the present facade and the Romanesque bell tower. In 1134 the Ions' Chapter, presided over by Prior Rainerio, decided to tear down the building and build a new temple behind the old one. The church was begun in 1140 by architect Gioni da Gubbio, as is inscribed on a tablet enclosed in the outside wall of the apse. The work proceeded slowly and was not finished in 1210, when a reconciliation pact between the Maiores and Minores of the town, which is still kept in the I Municipal Archives, ordered the continuation of the. By that time the presbytery was completed and St. Rufino's body was taken there in 1212. The altar was consecrated by Gregorius IX in 1228, but it was only in 1253 that Innocent IV consecrated the completely built church.
Texts Kindly offered by: Editrice Minerva Assisi