The Church of St Francis, Piediluco
He stopped there before resuming his journey towards Greccio, and of his presence in Piediluco there remains the memory of some episodes recounted by Thomas of Celano, the Saint's biographer.
However, the testimony of the passage of the Saint of Assisi remains above all the majestic Church dedicated to him, which has become a Franciscan Sanctuary and a destination for pilgrims travelling along the Via di Francesco. Commissioned at the end of the 13th century by Oddone Brancaleoni, feudal lord of the place, work on its construction ended in 1338, the year in which the church was opened to the faithful.
The site master builder, Pietro Damiani of Assisi, had to remedy the morphological irregularities of the site by setting the axis of the building in a north-south direction, a disposition that did not conform to the medieval canonical one, which provided for a west-east orientation. An attempt was made to remedy this discrepancy by opening the two access portals on the long west side, so that it serves as the main façade.
The stone building stands on top of a high flight of steps and has three single-lancet windows and two portals. Of these, the one on the left is decorated in the crown of the arch with elements related to fishing, on which the subsistence of the locals depended in the past. Above these decorations, one can admire a small niche with the Agnus Dei inside.
The bell tower located on the right side of the façade was added in the first half of the 19th century to replace the original one that was destroyed and located on the opposite side. The paintings decorating the interior, whose single nave is marked by six arches, are of significant artistic value. They are mainly 16th-century frescoes.
On the left wall are 'Madonna Enthroned with Child between St Sebastian and St Francis of Assisi' and 'Madonna and Child between St Joseph and St Anthony of Padua' by Marcantonio Aquili . Also on the left wall are images of 'St Agatha, St Anthony Abbot, St James Major, St Benedict, St Apollonia of Alexandria'.
In the apse are depictions of 'Saint Francis between Saints Anthony of Padua, Bernardine, Ludovico and Bonaventura'. Also in the apse is a 15th-century wooden crucifix, which is linked to the feast of the Good Jesus celebrated on 14 January. The right wall is frescoed with a 'Madonna enthroned, crowned by angels between St Sebastian and St Francis of Assisi'. The Sanctuary also preserves some relics of St Francis donated by the Sacred Convent of Assisi.