Romagna Slow
Half day hike by feet
From the Monastry of the Saint Fire to the Castle of San Leo
Half day hike from Sant'Igne to San Leo
From the monastery of Sant'Igne, situated in a clearing below the castle of San Leo, the route climbs up through a fresh forest to the castle of San Leo, almost like an eagle's nest on a rock that was once almost inaccessible. In the medieval village of San Leo you will find the majestic castle, the old cathedral, the castle tower and the characteristic shops.
Description
Shortly after the start of the hike, you will meet the Sant'Igne monastery, which, according to Franciscan tradition, lies outside the medieval city walls. It is located in a clearing below the castle of San Leo.
Parchments from the 13th century document that the original name of the monastery was Santegna. Egna comes from the Latin word ignis (fire) and means holy fire. Legend has it that in 1223, on his pilgrimage to the holy mountain of La Verna, Saint Francis left the path at this place and got lost in the woods when a miraculous fire showed him the right way to San Leo.
The Sant'Igne cloister has a square layout and is made up of twenty-two octagonal columns with capitals in the shape of waterflowers. Since the sixteenth century, the coat of arms of the Montefeltro family can be found on the steeple.
The itinerary leads us from the monastery upwards, through a forest, to the castle of San Leo.
The foundations of San Leo date back to the Visigoth king Vitig, who built a dwelling for five hundred soldiers here in 538 AD. In the ninth century, San Leo was the capital of the Italian Empire after Berengario II was defeated by Otto I of Saxony in Pavia in 961 AD and fled to the fortress of San Leo, which was difficult to capture.
In the eighteenth century, the fortress of San Leo served the Vatican as a dungeon. His probably most famous prisoner, the alchemist and impostor Count Alessandro Cagliostro, was betrayed by his own wife and sentenced to death by the Holy Inquisition for heresy and finally to life imprisonment. Four years later he died of a stroke, crammed into a ten square metre small, doorless dungeon.
San Leo is known as a city of the arts and has always been the capital of Montefeltro. Saint Francis and Dante Alighieri once visited this place, which is why the main square bears the name of the great poet.
Hiking information
- Walking time: approx. 3 hours
- Ascent: approx. 220 m
- Descent: approx. 220 m
- Difficulty:
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