Assisi Diary - Day 13 - Under the Piazza del Comune

Today has been a stocking up on food day, plus walking and writing, none of which involve photo taking.  Instead, I'll share some pictures from last week of an underground location. The room below is currently under the information office on the Piazza del Comune in Assisi.  Before that the post office was above it, before that it housed carabinieri, and if one traces back over 800 years, one finds it was the crypt of the Church of San Nicolo, an important location in the life of Francis.  

However, now this crypt houses artifacts from Roman times, and appropriately so, because the Piazza del Comune sits over ruins dating back more than 2000 years.  Most of the blocks, fragments and urns don't make for very interesting pictures, although one needs to appreciate this individual's sunny disposition over the centuries. 

There is some interesting pottery.

In Roman times, what is now the Piazza del Comune was perhaps 10 feet lower than today.  If one stepped down from the then Temple of Minerva, and then forward a few feet, one would be standing atop a retaining wall, with the Roman forum below.  Here's a graphic depiction.

From the crypt of San Nicolo, one is able to walk through an uderground tunnel and see the two openings in the center of this picture, which led up into the temple.  One can also see the base of the monument on the left, which apparently held a statue of Castor and Pollux.  The columns of the temple, of course, are still resting on today's Piazza del Comune as the entrance of the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

I've sometimes wondered how the elevation of the piazza could have changed so dramatically over the centuries. Likely the tearing down of palaces and other buildings, whether in revolt or in urban renewal, contributed to the higher ground level.  Here's what it looks like today.

Ciao.