Coclea: avventure a Narni

In 1979, six young men from the UTEC speleological group in Narni, Umbria, discovered, under the remains of an old Dominican convent, a small passage through a wall, covered by rubble and brambles. So great was their curiosity that, by digging and breaking down walled doors, they pushed right into the heart of the building, which had been abandoned for over a century and destroyed during the Second World War. From that day, together with other volunteers, they began a work of recovery until, in 1994, the route was opened to the public under the name Narni Sotterranea. The history of the place that had disappeared was enveloping them and was begging to be brought to light. Thus emerged a 13th-century church, completely frescoed and dedicated to the Archangel Michael, an ancient Roman cistern dating back to the 1st century B.C., but above all the dungeons of the Inquisition with a prison that preserved the enigmatic graffiti of a prisoner locked up in 1759. Today, thanks to some public and private contributions, but above all thanks to guided tour tickets, a slow but effective restoration work is underway.

 As a result, paintings by Umbrian artists from the Middle Ages have emerged, it has been possible to create virtual routes to experience the transformations of the church, to visit the aqueduct of the Roman Narni and to recreate the furnishings of the ‘Room of Torments’, where prisoners were persuaded to confess. Even more important was the long series of fortunate coincidences that allowed the historical reconstruction of the events that took place in those dark meanders, thanks to the collaboration provided by the Vatican Archives and Trinity College Dublin. It was precisely in Ireland that a trial was found against a murderous bigamist, who had escaped the various destructions and plunderings, tracked down through meticulous investigations undertaken to find the missing papers. The heart of the dungeon, however, is the dungeon with graffiti, created by a certain Giuseppe Andrea Lombardini in 1759, who created in that cramped environment a place familiar to him, namely a Masonic lodge. 

The sentence that condemned him has been tracked down and published. The visit ends in the majestic church of Santa Maria Maggiore, today San Domenico, transformed into a lecture hall, which was Narni's cathedral until the 12th century. It is in this building that one can admire the recent archaeological discoveries made by the association's volunteers, including a splendid 6th century Byzantine mosaic. In addition to the book and documentary ‘In Search of Truth’, which passionately tell the story of the discoveries, there are plans for a film or TV mini-series on the incredible story. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its opening to the public, on 13 April 2019 Narni Adventures was opened to the public, a playful didactic route to understand the importance of water for our planet, a sort of adventure park inside a large and evocative medieval cistern under the city's main square. 

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