La Verna, the holy mountain where in 1224 Saint Francis received the Stigmatas. At that moment in La Verna it existed a small church built by the Saint of Assisi and by his followers: Santa Maria degli Angeli (‘Saint Mary of the Angels’). A few years after the miraculous event, the Lords Guidi, lords of the Casentino, let build in La Verna another small church in the exact point where Saint Francis had received the Stigmatas: the present Cappella delle Stimmate (‘Chapel of the Stigmatas’).
They were the first buildings of a suggesting religious complex that quickly developed for the large number of pilgrims that approached here. In the XV century it was built a convent able to lodge a large number of friars; between the XV and XVI century it was built the present great basilica of La Verna that was enriched with the marvellous works by Andrea della Robbia.
In the centuries La Verna has had a growing of fame. Today, every year, hundreds of thousand of people and pilgrims coming from every part of the world climb this Holy Mountain. The great call remains Saint Francis, but the tourists come here also for the beauty of this place in east Tuscany, for the spectacularity of its panoramas, for its art, for the suggesting nature surrounding it.

Info: operator of La Verna 0575.5341-www.santuariolaverna.org