ITER PRECARIUM - Assisi Itinerari

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Name: Iter Precarium
Type: passage through the city walls
Art_classification: Roman
civilization: Roman
Historic Period: ...
integrity: partial
Country: Italy
Region: Umbria
Location: Assisi
satellite coordinates: 43.069566,12.61482
description language: english
belongin to: garden of church Santa Maria Maggiore
Current use: private space

Located under the garden of the Church of St. Maria Maggiore is a postierla, which is a narrow passage in the city wall, measuring just 180 x 62 ca. The path has a few spiral steps and is included in the wall. It has an architrave forming an obtuse angle, with the following inscription: ITI PRECA. The T has been very eroded by time. The most reliable reading is ITER PRECARIUM, or “passage on request”, which means that you were allowed only with a permit. However, the text is incomplete and has encouraged different interpretations, like post III PRECAtionem, after three prayers, favoring the hypothesis that there was a sacred place in the vicinity – the Temple Oracolare di Apollo (known to others as the so called Domus of Properzio), under the crypt of the Church.