Discover Sanctuary of Greccio

The Franciscan hermitage at Greccio is also called the sanctuary of the Nativity scene, because it was here, in 1223, that Francis of Assisi staged the first one. That has earned it the nickname of the Franciscan Bethlehem. It is the best known of the four sanctuaries of the Rieti Holy Valley -- with Fonte Colombo, La Foresta and Poggio Bustone -- and the oldest of them, the only one that already had buildings for friars in the saint's own lifetime.

The sanctuary is not one building but a stack of them, added around a cave over seven centuries and held against the rock of the Monti Sabini at 665 m.

The oldest thing is the grotto itself, where Francis lived and where the 1223 Nativity was staged. The Cappella del Presepio was built around it, and the first church, dedicated to St Francis and St Bonaventure, sits directly on top of that chapel on the upper floor; it dates from the first half of the 13th century, and a church enclosing the grotto had already gone up immediately after the canonisation, between July 1228 and February 1229. Its roof is a barrel vault painted as a starry sky with an image of Blessed Giovanni da Parma.

Beside the chapel is the old monastery, the first friars' quarters: a refectory still showing the remains of its lavabo and drainage channel, a dormitory of seven metres by two, the pulpit of San Bernardino, and the very small cell cut into bare rock where Francis rested, also called the sacro speco. When that was given up the community moved to the dormitory of San Bonaventura, said to have been built while Bonaventure was minister general of the order between 1260 and 1270 and used until 1915. It is built entirely of wood: a narrow corridor with fifteen small cells off it, the first on the right the one traditionally occupied by Bonaventure and by Bernardino of Siena.

The two modern layers are obvious. In 1906 an upper church replaced a 16th-century portico. Then in 1959 Alberto Carlo Carpiceci built the church of the Immacolata Concezione, whose facade and left flank are buried in the mountainside, so only the apse and right flank face the little square. It is stone and plaster with a bell-gable, single-light windows down the right flank, two portals into the nave and an octagonal apse lit by skylights. Inside it is a single nave on a Latin-cross plan without transepts, with a raised gallery along the left side and the back. All three portals carry bronze reliefs by Lino Agnini; the front one, 245 by 155 cm and weighing over 30 quintals, was cast in 1995 by the Briman foundry of Verona and shows the Madonna handing the infant Jesus to Francis, with Blessed John Duns Scotus, the dying St Clare holding the papal bull, and the faces of two of Francis's benefactors, Alticama Castelli di Stroncone and Giovanni Velita of Greccio. The rear portal shows Francis meeting the wolf.

The sanctuary grew outwards from a cave, and the sequence is still readable because nothing was cleared to make room for the next thing.

It began as little more than a rock site. Legend has it that to choose the spot, Francis had a child throw a burning brand, which flew like a bolt and came to rest on the steep rock face of a hillock belonging to Giovanni Velita; Francis settled there, in a humble grotto that formed the first nucleus. Only over time were the buildings that now make up the sanctuary raised around it.

The first permanent construction followed fast. A small community of the saint's followers formed at Greccio immediately after 1223, and the earliest buildings went up on the spot where the Nativity had been staged. In the window between Francis's canonisation in July 1228 and February 1229, a church was built that enclosed the grotto outright -- the church of San Francesco.

After that the method is accretion against a cliff. The buildings develop over several levels around a piazzale-belvedere, which is the only flat ground. The San Bonaventura dormitory, raised around 1260-70, is timber throughout rather than masonry -- fifteen cells off one narrow corridor -- which is what you build when the site gives you no footprint. The 1959 church had to be set into the mountain itself, leaving its facade and left flank covered by the hillside and turning the apse and right flank towards the square. Even the access is cut rather than built: the traditional way up is a long stairway carved into the cliff.

Two kilometres above, on the summit of Monte Lacerone at 1204 m, a small chapel marks where Francis is said to have built his hut, near two large hornbeams. Clement XI had it built in 1712; in 1889 it was absorbed into a shepherds' house.

Is this really where the Christmas crib started?

Yes. On Christmas Eve 1223, with the help and encouragement of the local lord Giovanni Velita, Francis staged a re-enactment of the birth of Christ with living figures at the grotto where he was living. The practice spread from there through the Christian world, which is why Greccio is nicknamed the Franciscan Bethlehem.

When did Francis first come to Greccio?

Nobody knows. Franciscan tradition puts his first visit at 1209 or 1217, and his presence then is considered probable but is not documented. The first historically established presence is 1223. He returned from late September 1224 until 1226, leaving six months before his death.

Can I go into the grotto?

Yes -- the Cappella del Presepio is built around it, and beyond the benches you reach the grotto itself: a small plain space with an altar and a couple of seats. The recess in the rock under the altar table is where tradition says the figure of the infant Jesus was placed.

What is the fresco above the altar?

A lunette of the 1400s in the Giottesque manner, attributed to an anonymous master of Narni and dated 1409. The right half shows the original Nativity at Bethlehem; the left half shows Francis's re-enactment at Greccio, with the saint kneeling in a deacon's vestments and the people of Greccio watching behind.

Is the portrait of St Francis here painted from life?

Local tradition says the original was, in 1225, commissioned by his friend Jacopa de' Settesoli -- which would make it the only portrait of the saint taken in his lifetime. But the canvas hanging in the oratory is a 14th-century copy; the original is lost. It shows him drying his eyes with a handkerchief because of the eye disease he was being treated for at Rieti.

How many sanctuaries are there in the Valle Santa?

Four: Greccio, Fonte Colombo, La Foresta and Poggio Bustone. Greccio is the best known and the oldest, and the only one that already had buildings for friars during Francis's lifetime.

Have popes visited?

Three times. John Paul II on 2 January 1983, and Pope Francis twice -- privately on 4 January 2016 and publicly on 1 December 2019, when he delivered the apostolic letter Admirabile signum on the meaning of the nativity scene.

What is the Letter of Greccio?

An introduction to their biography of the saint, written here on 11 August 1246 when three of Francis's companions met at the sanctuary.

Is there anything above the sanctuary?

A small chapel on the summit of Monte Lacerone at 1204 m, reached by a rough path of about two kilometres through the woods. It marks where Francis is said to have built his hut, near two large hornbeams; Clement XI had it built in 1712 and in 1889 it was absorbed into a shepherds' house.

Do coaches have to pay to come up?

Yes. The Comune di Greccio has required tourist coaches to pay an entry ticket for the Santuario Francescano area and the town since a council deliberation of 8 September 2014. It is paid at the municipal tourist office at Piazzale dei Tre Compagni, below the sanctuary.