The church features a rectangular floor plan, with load-bearing walls made of white and pink Assisi stone, built in rubble masonry. The foundations were reinforced with a reinforced concrete beam connected to the existing masonry foundations. The gable roof is new and consists of primary and secondary wooden framing with overlapping tiles and a reinforced concrete screed. The interior walls are plastered, and the back wall features a 15th-century fresco, while the flooring is made of terracotta.
The original architectural appearance of the small church has undergone various alterations and transformations over time. Today, the complex—comprising the church and sacristy—is topped by a bell gable and appears as a single structure. According to architect G. Meccoli, an addition was made toward the mountain in the 17th century, nearly square in shape with an arched entrance and two side openings. Later—possibly after the earthquakes of the 18th and 19th centuries—the structure was reinforced with lateral buttresses. The last restoration intervention took place in 1964 when the roof was covered with roof tiles (information from Francesco Santucci, *Il passaggio dei Bianchi in Assisi (1399)*, Accademia Properziana del Subasio, Assisi 1999).
**Date of first use:** Between 1399 and 1403
**Image:** Painting
**Collection of ex-votos:** Data not available
**1403 (general construction period)**
The chapel, originally named Santa Maria dell’Oliva, is documented as early as 1403, when it was recorded as being built “in comitatu Assisii.” It is believed that construction began shortly after the miracle of the Virgin’s apparition on July 2, 1399 (Feast of the Visitation) (Arnaldo Fortini, *La Madonna dell’Oliva*, Venice 1956, p. 28). The first evidence of the chapel’s existence, originally called Santa Maria de Oliva, appears in Assisi’s archives from 1403. About a century after its construction, the small church became a landmark, known as a precise reference point. A 17th-century guide listed it as a pilgrimage destination for those visiting Assisi’s holy sites. Documents show that devotion remained alive in subsequent centuries until the 19th century. Today, this church—which requires urgent restoration—is only open for the Feast of the Visitation and remains closed for the rest of the year.
The founding legend of this sanctuary is linked to the passage of the Company of the Bianchi in Assisi. It is said that after a period of war and plunder, during which cholera had claimed many lives, the Company of the Bianchi arrived in Assisi from Siena. The few remaining inhabitants were struck by these penitents, who processed barefoot, holding lit candles, singing mournful hymns begging for mercy, dressed in long white linen robes with hoods and a red cross on their chests. They left the city in June 1399 after forming another company, leaving behind their religious fervor. Following their departure, two miracles occurred—the first in the church of Santa Chiara, the second in the olive grove where the Sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Oliva would later be built. These events are recounted in two vernacular laude from a 15th-century Umbrian manuscript.
Regarding the olive grove miracle, it is said that an Assisi peasant went with his young son to an olive grove outside Porta Nuova, near the Petroia spring, to cut a hedge. While the father worked, the Virgin appeared to the child, who ran to his father in fright. The father, seeing no one nearby, thought the boy had lost his senses. The child insisted that a woman in white had called him repeatedly, gesturing for him to approach. The skeptical man followed his son to the apparition site, where the Virgin signaled the boy to come closer. She then instructed him to return to the city and tell the people of Assisi to wear white robes, as their nine days of penance and self-flagellation had not sufficed to earn Christ’s forgiveness due to their sins. They were to reconcile with their enemies, forgive offenses, and restore ill-gotten gains to receive Christ’s mercy. The father, still unable to see the Virgin, questioned his son again. In memory of the event, the current Sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Oliva was erected (information from Francesco Santucci, *Il passaggio dei Bianchi in Assisi (1399)*, Assisi, 1999).
An oral version of the founding legend differs from the written account and is also depicted in a painting. A farmer who lived near the sanctuary decades ago recounted that a peasant had a son deeply devoted to the Virgin. The boy often wandered off to pray to her. One day, the father, considering this behavior lazy, caught him praying in the olive grove and swung a sickle at him, but the Virgin miraculously deflected the blow. An early 18th-century print in the San Rufino Archive depicts the Virgin, the child who had the vision, the father holding a sickle, and the olive tree, with the inscription “Miraculous Image of the Most Holy Mary of the Olive.”
Around the 1950s, the child of a farming family living near the sanctuary fell gravely ill. It is said that after lighting many candles before the miraculous image and entrusting him to the Virgin, the parents found him completely healed the next day.
Piazza Inferiore di S. Francesco, 2, 06081 Assisi PG, Italy
