Assergi Town: the village and what to visit

Posted by Antonio Giampaoli | 2012-02-12 | Commenti: 3 | Letto 988848 volte     Image Sample

(From Abruzzo Up n' Down)

 
 
On the top of an ancient rock, Assergi tells his history to the passerby. It is an history beginning since a long time ago and it is told by its walls, its stone houses, its churches and by that solitary clocktower telling the flowing time.
 
The plan of Assergi is the same of the past, when in the XI centuries its walls defended the people from the enemies. The walls have three stone doors: the East Door, the Door of Hill and the Door of River.



In the town, the most important building is the Saint Mary's Church. It was built in 1150 by a bishop coming from Forcona, as you can read in an ancient inscription on a wall of the church: "D.O.M. Templum hoc B.V.M.dic. ab Episcopo Forcon. dedic.anno MCL". This church was built on an more ancient building: the Saint Equizio's Monastery.
The frontage of the curch resembles that one of the Saint Mary in Collemaggio's Church in L'Aquila, with its big rose window. On the left of the main frontage, there is another small frontage of the demolished Saint Mary of the Snow's Church.
All the church is on a rock and below that a small river flows.
 
The back of the Saint Mary's Church in Assergi
 
In the Saint Mary's Church, there is one of the most precious treasure of Abruzzo: a small crypt hiding the Saint Frank's relics, the Saint living as a hermit in a cave near Assergi. Going down to the Saint Frank's crypt is like going down to our soul to know more about ourselves.
 
 
Out of the walls of the village, another beautiful church adorns Assergi: it is the Saint Mary in Valley's Convent, wich has been restored recently and today it houses the main base of the Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains's National Park. The building is famous for the elegant cloister painted with the stories of the Saint Bernard's life. 
Moreover, you can find in the Convent the archeological remains found in the Grotta a Male, discovered by Francesco De Marchi in 1573, near the village.
 
The frontage of the Saint Mary's Church  (by Assergi Racconta)

In addition to the Saint Frank's hermitage, located near Assergi, you have to visit another beautiful holy place. I mean the holy stone village, completely deserted: San Pietro della Ienca, wich was loved by Pope Wojtyla and today has become the Pope John Paul II's Official Sanctuary. In these desolated places, infact, Pope John Paul II often came to pray and listen the God's words...



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