Orari Visita:
Tutti i giorni: 6.45>12.30 - 14.30>19.00
Not a farm from the Chiesa di San Damiano, on the edge of the valley crossed by the old Route 75 leading from Santa Maria degli Angeli to Spello, is the Convento Francescano of Santa Maria di Rivotorto. The area takes its name from a stream which originates on Mt. Subasio and runs beside the church.
On this spot once existed a hovel which St. Francis turned into his first home around 1208 together with Bernardo da Quintavalle and Pietro Cattani. When the community increased in size, Francis went to Rome from Rivotorto to ask the Pope for the approval of a Rule of Life. Having obtained it, the friars were forced to look for another home.
The primitive hut was turned into a chapel by Brother Francesco Saccardo in 1455, who built around it a church dedicated to the Madonna. Finally, in 1586 Pope Sixtus V promoted the construction of a larger church, which was begun only in 1600 by Brother Filippo Gesualdo da Castrovillari and was completed around 1640. Following the 1853 earthquake, the church was reconstructed in the neo-Gothic style following a design by Brother Bernardo Tini.
Texts Kindly offered by: Editrice Minerva Assisi