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Artificial Cavities
in Latium region (Italy)
1. Preface
At the beginning of 1987, while we were doing a research of Karstic phenomena in Latium region, we stumbled across some nice natural caves that have been used like cult places since the Middle Ages. We liked them so much that we decided to look for more caves like that. That is how we started to look for, survey and study the more undergound (natural and then artificial) sanctuaries we could find in our lovely region.
Some years later, when finding new secluded cult places became very hard, we stumbled across some underground acqueducts. Again we fell in love with those human works and we started to look for Roman and pre-Roman acqueducts. Some time later we discovered underground works, dug in tufa rocks, that were used to dry close valleys near Roma and Viterbo, and we surveyed them too. While working in the acqueducts we found also hypogean civilian dwellings, stables, pigeon-houses and we decided to survey them, too. We did not miss ancient cisterns or the undergrounds of a few very ruined castles. Latium region is full of all these works.
In this web site we will show, in a very brief way, some lists of all the artificial cavities we've found, studied and surveyed with the help of Tullio Dobosz and Fernanda Vittori. For more infromations take a look at the bibliography.
2. Kinds and Uses of the Artificial Cavities
In Italy there are many kinds of artificial cavities: some are very common, some are rare or typical of only certain localities. Some kinds have the same name in all the places, but some names change a lot from one region to another. While creating the list of the artificial cavities, it has been defined a standard code that counts the most widespread Italian kinds. This code assemble them for analogy of the structures so that there is only a small number of kinds to choose from.
Lately, in June 1999, the Italian Artificial Cavities Committee of the S.S.I. updated this code: the last version is shown here.
A. = Water underground works:
A.1 = water level control / drainage-ways.
A.2 = underground stream interception works.
A.3 = underground water ducts: aqueducts and others waters.
A.4 = cisterns, water reservoirs.
A.5 = wells.
A.6 = water distribution feeders.
A.7 = sewers.
A.8 = ship/boat underground canals.
A.9 = underground ice/snow-houses.
A.10 = unknown function ducts.
B. = Hypogean civilian dwellings :
B.1 = durable inhabited dwellings.
B.2 = temporary shelters.
B.3 = underground plants, factories.
B.4 = warehouses, stores, cellars.
B.5 = underground silos.
B.6 = stables (for any kind of animals).
B.7 = pigeon-houses.
B.8 = any other kind of civilian dwelling.
C. = Cult, veneration works:
C.1 = places of cult (chapels,churches,etc.).
C.2 = burials, graves.
D. = Military works:
(for offence or defence).
D.1 = various defence works.
D.2 = tunnels and connecting passages.
D.3 = mine and countermine tunnels.
D.4 = weapon pits.
D.5 = depots.
D.6 = soldiers shelters and accommodations.
D.7 = war shelters for civilians.
E. = Underground extractive works:
E.1 = rock and aggregates quarries.
E.2 = metal mines.
E.3 = non-metallic material mines.
E.4 = indefinable mine rigs.
E.5 = vegetable underground growings.
F. = Underground ways:
(for civilian use).
F.1 = tunnels for vehicles, pedestrians or horses.
F.2 = narrow passages, not military.
F.3 = railway, tramway or funicular railway tunnels (out-of-use).
F.4 = shafts and slopes.
G. = Other works not included in former categories:
Various works that doesn't count in the former kinds. For example: museums, underground garages, underground meeting chambers and so on.
3. List of the cavities
We've assembled all the works we've studied in the last 14 years following the code that is shown in the previous paragraph. The lists have four columns: name of the cave, commune (province), number and notes about the kind. Many works are very complex so they cannot belong to one single kind: that is shown in the forth column.
Water underground works
Hypogean civilian dwellings
Cult and veneration works
Underground extractive works
Underground ways
Other works
© 2001 by Alberta Felici, Giulio ed Emanuele Cappa
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