• SAN FRANCESCO ORATORY

• Via San Francesco, 40056 Crespellano

• To see the interior of the church, make an appointment with the Suore Minime dell’Addolorata (Little Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows), tel. +39051964137

• Just outside of town, where urban noise gives way to placid country quiet, stands one of the oldest churches in the world dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi. According to tradition, the Saint himself is said to have preached in this lovely place. There are records documenting the existence of this church from as far back as 1232. If we consider that St. Francis had died only six years earlier, that construction had barely begun on the basilica in Assisi and that the large Bolognese church in his honor would not be built for another four years (1236), we better appreciate just how far ahead of its time this humble, delicate oratory in Crespellano was, with its austere romanesque lines, gabled façade, ogee-arched portal, small, round, stained-glass window and sequence of blind arches running across the top and right side of the building. Adjacent to the oratory is the structure originally designed as a convent, but later used as a country mansion. Inside we find a valuable relic and a curious, wooden statue of the Madonna, known in the local dialect as “la Madona d’i spuncioun” (the spiked Madonna). At the end of the 19th century, the property was purchased by the Pedrazzi family, and later bequeathed to the Little Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows.