The convent was built in the 13th century where a Benedictine hermitage already existed chosen by St. Francis to retire in prayer.
Tradition has it that here the Poor Man of Assisi, inspired by the surroundings, composed the "Exhortatio ad laudem Dei", composition that anticipates the more famous "Canticle of the Creatures".
The complex is made up of the church of the Most Holy Annunciation, the chapel of St. Bernard, the small cloister, the novitiate hall, the friars’ cells and the splendid cedar of Lebanon that flourishes in the middle of the buildings.
Not far away is the evocative cave, a cleft in the rock where Francis retired, in communion with the Earth.