Assisi, downtown

A view in the city of Saint Francis. I sat down to draw this one warm evening in April. It was easter, if I recall correctly. I was cycling around central Italy that spring, and had made my way to Assisi from Florence by way of Siena, Chiusi and Perugia.

Assisi struck me as a rather bipolar town. At one end, the famous basilica of St. Francis dominates, along with its trappings of pilgrim and tourist infrastructure. At the other end of the town, things felt more secular. A topographical distinction between church and state is in fact typical of many medieval Italian towns, whose inhabitants often felt ambivalent about their bishops and his relationship with the Pope in Rome. The Pope was the Pope, yes, but he was also the boss of a rival city.


Of interest is the temple of Minerva, a rare example of a pre-Augustan era temple surviving intact in an urban context. There must have have been hundreds of such structures throughout the towns of the Roman empire, but the great majority were cannibalized for building materials well before the modern period. This one served as a municipal office in the 13th century, and during the Renaissance - an age more reverent of classical remains - transformed into a church.