The house of the Comacini Masters in Assisi
Modern-day Via San Francesco is located in the area that was known as the "village of the city of Assisi" - or simply "the village" - until the construction of the basilica dedicated to the saint.
Towards the middle of the thirteenth century, this road was referred to in documents as the "strata per quamytur ad Sanctum Franciscum" ("the road leading to the church of St. Francis") or just "strata" or "Istrata Sancti Francisci" ("road of St. Francis"). It was also known as "strata magna" or "great road".
Throghout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, new houses ad craftsmen's workshops were built along this road, as well as "hospitals" ("hospice") for the pilgrims who came to Assisi in growing number to pray at the tomb of "The Poor One".
One of these new houses was the one now located at XX on the modern-day Via San Francesco. Know as "the Houseof The Comacini Masters", it is divided into two stories (including the groundfloor) divided by a thin cornice. It has two doorways (the original "round one with an ogival extrados" and the other one dating to the fifteenth century which is rectangular in shape) and two windows "with a depressed arch and oogival extrados" on the upper floor, which have three corbels near them.
A coat of arms with an open compass and a flower is sculpted between two festoons: this is the insigna of the Comacini Masters or in otherwords, of the skilled workers/masons, stone-cutters, dressers)who lived here while working to build or repair churches, palaces, houses and bridges. Many of them came from "the parts around Lombardy", particularly Como and for this reason they were referred to as "Comacini".
There is another coat of arms set in to the wall in a section that just out from the house to the right of the façade. It bears the heads of two lions and three balls, with the years 1477 inscribedit. This was the period in which the "Comacini" were most numerous in Assisi, as extensively documented by the city deeds, the debit and creditbooks, and the receipt books of the Commune of Assisi of the sixteenth century.
Since it was located near the impressive monastery and basilica complex of the St. Francis, where these skilled workers were often employed, this was undoubtedly the building that is listed as "the house the Lombards living in Assisi" in one of the documents found in the Archives of the Sacro Convento.