Castel Sant'Elia

At the end of the seventeen hundreds a hermit called Rodio began to cut a tunnel down through the rock. He worked at it for fourteen years, and when he had finished the steps were one hundred and forty-four, and they led from the convent above down to the sanctuary of Maria Santissima ad Rupes, which is itself carved out of the rock and has the dignity of a minor basilica. Inside, a painted image of the Virgin is venerated, a work of the sixteenth century, and in a room beside it there is a collection of sacred vestments running from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, together with a small thirteenth-century casket of wood and metal foil. Those steps are still the way down.

From the village a country lane called the road of the Saints leads down to the valley floor, and there stands the basilica of Sant'Elia, which tradition says was built over an ancient temple of Diana. It goes back to the twenties of the twelfth century, is made of tufa and has three doorways carved with flowers, animals and monstrous figures. Inside, the nave and the two aisles are divided by ancient columns taken from elsewhere and set to work again; under the apse is the crypt, with the tombs of Saint Anastasius and Saint Nonnosus. The village up above is called Castel Sant'Elia, but the local people call it simply Castello, the castle.