Grotte di Castelcivita

Under the Alburni mountains above the Calore river, the Castelcivita Caves run for nearly five kilometres, forming one of southern Italy's largest cave systems. The entrance area preserves evidence of the first modern humans in the region.

Why it matters

Castelcivita is a double attraction: a show cave and a prehistoric site of European significance. The karst network — about 4,800 metres of galleries, chambers and narrow passages — opens at 94 metres of altitude on the south-western flank of the Monti Alburni, right where the Cilento national park begins, which is why locals call it the underground gate of the Cilento. The entrance area preserves traces of the arrival of early modern humans and their relationship with the last Neanderthals, a transition documented at only a small number of Italian sites.

What to notice

Water has carved vaulted chambers in the principal gallery and left flowstone curtains, stalactites and stalagmites. The cave lies between the Calore and the mountain slope, and its hydrology remains active. Excavation levels near the entrance are central to the site's Palaeolithic significance.

Context and history

Scientific attention has come in waves. The decisive campaign of excavation ran from 1975 to 1988 under Professor Paolo Gambassini of the University of Siena, whose work established the importance of the Palaeolithic sequence at the entrance. Research resumed in the autumn of 2016, when the University of Siena's prehistory unit and the Soprintendenza Archeologia della Campania cleaned and consolidated the old trenches as a first step towards renewed systematic study — a collaboration that has continued in later seasons. Decades of speleological exploration have surveyed roughly 4,800 metres of the cave network. The caves lie at the edge of the Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni.