The wonderful place where St. Francis preached to the birds
Piandarca is a natural area of around 40 acres placed in Umbria (Italy’s green heart), in Cannara’s municipality. Its toponym has an ancient history, its first appearances are in documents from 1200. Piandarca is a flat strip of land, surrounded by a silent and unspoiled landscape. A singular 360-degrees view allows to admire the encircling hilltop towns without any difficulty. This is a gorgeous piece of the scenery of enormous historical value. Indeed it’s known to have hosted one of the most famous moments of st. Francis’ life: The Preach To The Birds.
The ‘historical path’, bordered by green patches of native trees, is about 2 kilometres long. A secular tradition shows this to be the one travelled by the most loved Saint in the spring of 1221, after the preach to the people of Cannara and the first idea of the Third Order of Continents (today Francis’ Secular Order ). He went towards Bevagna and here, walking down the track, a flock of birds took his attention. The Saint, amazed by this splendid scene was inspired and composed the famous Preach, that represented the most poetic moment of his life. (Fioretti, ch.XVI).
