Explore Assisi Medieval Town on Foot (Self Guided), Assisi

Dante believed that the name Assisi did not fully express the town’s significance. In his poem Paradiso, he suggested that it should instead be called the “East” because Saint Francis rose from its hillside like a new sun.

Assisi stands on the western slope of Mount Subasio, overlooking the Umbrian Valley. Human settlement in the area dates back to prehistoric times, while the town itself developed from an Umbrian community influenced by neighbouring Etruscan culture. Its name comes from the Latin Asisium, the form used under Roman rule.

Romans gained control of the region after the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. Asisium became a prosperous municipium, arranged on terraces cut into the hillside. Its forum lay beneath today’s Town Hall Square, and surviving remains include Roman walls, an amphitheatre, houses, and the temple façade now incorporated into the Church of Saint Mary above Minerva. Christianity spread during the later Roman period, traditionally through Saint Rufinus, Assisi’s first bishop and patron saint.

After the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Assisi passed through Gothic, Byzantine, Lombard, and Frankish hands before becoming part of the Duchy of Spoleto. It revived as a self-governing commune during the 11th and 12th centuries but was repeatedly drawn into conflicts involving emperors, popes, local factions, and neighbouring Perugia. This unsettled period produced the two figures who transformed the town’s place in world history: Francis, born in 1181 or 1182, and Clare, born in 1193 or 1194.

Francis died in 1226 and was canonised two years later. Construction of the Basilica of Saint Francis began in 1228, creating a major pilgrimage centre and a landmark of European medieval art. The Basilica of Saint Clare followed in the mid-13th century, while papal authorities rebuilt the Major Fortress and strengthened the town walls during the 14th century.

From the 16th century until 1860, apart from the Napoleonic interlude, Assisi belonged to the Papal States before joining unified Italy.

Walking through Assisi’s old town, visitors follow steep stone lanes between pale Umbrian houses, arched passages, small fountains, artisan shops, and viewpoints overlooking olive-covered hills. The route begins near the Basilica of Saint Francis, then climbs towards Piazza del Comune, where Roman columns rise beside medieval civic buildings and lively cafés. Farther uphill, the Basilica of Saint Clare opens onto a broad terrace with sweeping views across the Umbrian Valley and the surrounding countryside.

As you climb its stone streets from Roman ruins to medieval basilicas, watch how the light spreads across the valley—and decide whether Dante was right to call Assisi the place where a new sun rose.