Sanctuaire de La Verna

Chiusi della Verna

A table-like promontory of pale rock, ringed by high cliffs, set in the midst of a beech wood where the trees reach fifty metres. Francis of Assisi received it as a gift on 8 May 1213 and returned there until his death; it was here that he received the stigmata in September 1224 — Italian sources say the 17th, the English one the 14th. The place had long been known for its caves and crevasses, and the most famous of these features of the terrain, the Sasso Spicco, is an enormous block almost detached from the mountainside, hanging over a void into which one descends by eighty-nine steps. The friary was almost entirely destroyed in 1472 and rebuilt from 1474 thanks to the Arte della Lana.

Getting there : 4 km from the village of Chiusi della Verna; daily procession to the Chapel of the Stigmata; within the Foreste Casentinesi National Park

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound