The Hermitage of the Carceri

 church, hermitage, interesting place, Roman Catholic church

In the caves on the slope of Monte Subasio just outside the walls of Assisi, St. Francis (1181-1226) and his followers established their first home at the Eremo delle Carceri (Carceri Hermitage). He often returned here during his life to pray and contemplate. The word Carceri is from the Latin carceres and means "isolated places".
St. Francis first began coming to this beautiful place in the forest in 1205. At the time, the only building here was a tiny 12th-century oratory. Francis lived alone in a cave, where he prayed fervently and did penance. Soon other men followed him to the mountain, finding their own isolated caves nearby in which to pray.

When the friars gathered together for communal prayer, they would use the existing oratory, which became known as Santa Maria delle Carceri after the small "prisons" occupied by friars in the area.

The site and the oratory was probably given by the Benedictines to St. Francis in 1215, at the same time they gave him the Porziuncola in the valley below. Francis dedicated himself to a life of preaching and missions, but throughout his life he would frequently withdraw to the Carceri to pray.

In the centuries that followed, various buildings were added around St. Francis' cave and the original oratory, forming the sizeable complex that exists today. (The Eremo's website has useful drawings of the development here - '400 corresponds to 1400 and so on.) Today, the hermitage is still occupied by Franciscan friars.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi