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  Frasassi caves
The area of Frasassi, just outside Genga, has hidden for centuries the widest and most interesting spelaeologist landscape in Italy. Over 13 kilometres of caves, of which almost two kilometres that can be visited. You arrive there is a few minutes from Fabriano or from Sassoferrato. Since always, we can say, the caves excavated by the Sentino river in the calcareous rock have been living with man since prehistoric times, and we still retain various evidence of this.
In the wide caves at the foothills of the cave the chapel of S.Maria Intra Saxa, which belonged in the Middle Ages to a Benedictine monastery. The first explored cave was that of the River in '48 and then in '71 the great discovery; the cave of the «Great wind».
From the entrance the trail begins; after a small artificial passage you arrive at the Karst complex, formed by various passages, with stalagmites and stalactites in fantastic shapes, to which the strangest names are given; «the waterfall», «the giant», «the haystack». From the Cave of the Great Wind (Ancona Abyss Hall) you go progressively through the «Twohundred Hall», of the Candles, of the Bear, of the Infinite.
Ancona Abyss is an enormous cave, among the greatest in Europe and the world, which could easily contain the Dome of Milan for its 200 metres of height, 180 of length and 120 of width. At the bottom of the cave there are enormous stone blocks, a result of the collapses which have taken place throughout the millennia and which have given origin to that which, in honour of the first spelaeologists who 25 years ago peeped over its surface, was called the "Ancona Abyss".
The journey through the heart of the mountain through the various halls is an absolutely unique experience.
March.2002
For more information (In italian)
Municipality of Genga (In Italian)
Marche Special Report
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