Narni Sotterranea

Narni Sotterranea is a network of underground spaces beneath the town, discovered by local speleologists in 1979. Its route includes a medieval church, Roman remains, rooms associated with the Inquisition and a prison cell bearing a former prisoner's graffiti.

Why it matters

The site combines archaeological remains with documentary evidence about the history of the Roman Inquisition in Narni. Archival research helped identify the function of the rooms discovered beneath the town and interpret the graffiti left by prisoners.

What to notice

The route includes the thirteenth-century Church of Santa Maria della Rupe, once associated with a Dominican convent, and a Roman domus with a cistern and a section of the Formina aqueduct. The Stanza dei Tormenti is linked to the Inquisition through archival documents. In Giuseppe Andrea Lombardini's cell, graffiti include a coded message deciphered by Roberto Nini. The underground complex also preserves a twelfth-century crypt with Byzantine mosaics and remains associated with the former cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Context and history

Members of Narni's UTEC speleological group discovered the first room in 1979. In 1994, the volunteers founded the Associazione Culturale Subterranea to safeguard the site and continue research. The underground remains part of the wider archaeological landscape beneath the town.