RELIGIOUS ITINERARY full day

Since the end  of the14th century St. Catherine’s head is kept in the monastery of St. Domenico. The chapel of the vaults, in this same church, has been the theatre of some of her mystic miracles. Catherine was born in a family of dyers nearby the church. Nowadays some Domenican nuns take care of her Sanctuary with its several oratories and the very old Crucifix  from which she got the stigmata. Here, on request, The Holy Mass can be said.

St. Francesco is another important Basilica belonging to the mendicant orders. Shaped like a T, it is made of just one spacious nave with a  wooden roof  seriously violated by a fire in the 17th century. Luckily some wonderful frescos of the transept by Lorenzetti still survive. Some 18th century Holy Hosts are still visible in one of its side chapels.

This walk includes the visit to Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption with its Votive Chapel then a pilgrimage outside the city walls to the close- by Basilica dell’Osservanza . There St. Bernardino of Siena founded the observant Franciscan movement in the 15th century.