The church of Santa Maria al Monte has always been regarded as a place of great strategic value due to its position overlooking a crucial river crossing, yet strangely in all its years it was only once the object of an attempted siege. On May 12, 1640 a Huguenot soldier broke into the church and tried to pry the tabernacle door open with his sword, only to be blasted by a burst of flames which materialized out of thin air without apparent cause. Accounts of the episode, circulated by its many witnesses, obviously deterred the French from any further attempt at looting the holy place.