The hermatige of St Francis of Assisi

The Eremo delle Carceri is a small hermitage in a steep forest gorge at the Mount Subasio, some 4km outside the town of Assisi and marina took me there with her car..Italy still amazes me...

In the 13th century, Saint Francis of Assisi returned here during his life to pray and contemplate as did other hermits before him. When he first came in 1205, the only building here was a tiny 12th-century oratory. Soon, other men followed him to the mountain, finding their own isolated caves nearby in which to pray. The oratory became known as Santa Maria delle Carceri after the small "prisons" occupied by friars in the area.The core of the hermitage complex, of course, is the actual rock cave where Francis came to be alone and pray. We walked through this cave and I found it to be very narrow and not high at all...

This complex of chapels and buildings grew up over the Saint's cave.

One day in the early thirteenth century, when St. Francis was preaching in Umbria, a nearby flock of little birds were chirping very loud, and the saint could not make himself heard. He turned to them and asked them to be quiet, please; and they are said to have obeyed, and even to have drawn themselves up in formation in the shape of a cross, and listened to him. This predica agli uccelli quickly became a favorite subject with painters.
"some of the info fromWikipedia"