Cycladic statue

The interior was frescoed, a semi circle of  the apostles, but these sadly were brutally hacked off  (you can see the signs above the arch) and sold illegally in the 1960s. Thankfully they were later recovered and they are now in the Ischia di Castro Museum.
Some frescoes survive mainly over the alter. These manifest the close ties between the ancient church and the popular beliefs still prevalent in the Italian countryside.
Worship is an inaccurate word for the pagan rites that took place here, it implies adoration of an omnipotent God whereas the rituals that the Etruscans and others practised were more about celebrating oneness with nature and the cosmos. The deities could have been several: Turan, the Etruscan Venus; Minerva; or the male deity Fufluns, the Etruscan Bacchus. Bacchanalia are usually associated with the Romans (and parties organised by the Italian Prime Minister) but similar rites are  common to all antique cultures and survive even today in aboriginal peoples.

curious (for a Christian church) frescoes above the altar

In pre-Christian Italy it was common practise to hold rites in a Sacred Grove. Making music was integral: drums, tambourines, castanets, pipes, trumpets and dancing to the point of ecstasy. Singing too, even yelling were part of the ritual. The ancient world was much darker and almost silent by modern standards – and a lot more dangerous; thus the sense of hearing would have had a much greater importance in respect to sight. A place like the sacred glade would have been chosen for magical rights because of its extraordinary acoustics.

cascade from above

Scientists in the field of archeo-acoustics from Princeton University have recently found that the resonance found in caves, grottoes and amphitheatres like Stonehenge have a  frequency of 110 Hz which in turn has an effect on the left hemisphere of the brain, damping it and causing an asymmetry in the pre-fontal cortex leading to a predominance of the right side. The result is a diminution of the centres of language and a heightening of the emotions. This would have strengthened the emotional charge of those participating in mystical ceremonies.   If alcohol and possibly other drugs were added to the alchemy then it is easy to imagine participants becoming entranced and feeling they were passing from one dimension to another.

I have shot a number of pictures in the sacred glade, for example Nacht und Träume
and Bacchanalia

The post Poggio Conte – Part 2 appeared first on Camera Etrusca Photography Holidays & Workshops in Italy.

“Sunrise glowed red as I climbed along the gorge; when I reached the grove, I saw the altar slab all scattered with brightness, like the harper’s robe. I put down my load, and prayed to Apollo.”

Poggio Conte will appear immediately familiar to anyone who has read Mary Renault’s The King Must Die, a novel based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, in which she describes in detail a Sacred Glade.

The Sacred Glade, the cliff church is just visible top left.

Poggio Conte is in a remote corner of northern Latium on the borders of Tuscany.

It is quicker……………. and easier in the Land Rover

Most visitors must leave their cars by the road (where the signpost is usually absent) about 5km from the site, walk along the Fiora valley through a bucolic idyl of grazing cattle amongst scarlet poppies.

The last stretch before the wood, the glade is among the trees ahead beneath the cliff

With the Land Rover we can however get much closer before having to leave the vehicle to follow a footpath along a cutting through the cliffs. As we approach the glade we begin to hear an enchanting sound, the tinkle of water cascading onto a blue-black pointed rock.

Sacred Glade cascade

There are Etruscan tombs cut into the cliffs though most have disappeared as the sides of the ravine have collapsed over millennia. However, the cliff church though losing it’s portal to erosion by flood-waters, has survived in the cliff above the concave dell.

Etruscan tombs in the ravine leading to the glade.

Patrick Nicholas has used this location in several of his pictures in the Belle series , for example Lilith.

More about the sacred glade and the hermitage church of San Colomba in the next blog coming up soon.

This is one of the several Photo excursion location that we normally include in our photo workshops and photo tours .

The post Poggio Conte – Part 1, The Sacred Glade appeared first on Camera Etrusca Photography Holidays & Workshops in Italy.