Description of the attraction
The Frasassi grottoes are a remarkable complex of karst caves, located 7 km from the town of Jenga in the Italian region of Marche and considered one of the most visited in Italy.
The caves were discovered and explored by a group of speleologists from Ancona in 1948-1971. Inside there are several reservoirs and a huge number of stalactites and stalagmites of the most bizarre shapes and sizes. For some time, experiments in chronobiology were carried out in this complex - one of those who spent the most time in the caves was the Italian sociologist Maurizio Montalbini, who died here in 2009.
As mentioned above, the Frasassi grottoes were first discovered in 1948, but a systematic study of this almost 30-kilometer complex began only in the 1970s after the discovery of the so-called Ancona Abyss - one of the largest and most beautiful caves in the world. Among the other famous caves of the complex is Grottafucile, where the hermit Sylvester Guzzolini, the founder of the Sylvester monastic order, once lived. In the 19th century, a Catholic chapel was even built inside it.
Today, the Frasassi complex is open to tourists who can walk along a special 1.5 km route and see caves with romantic names Grand Canyon, Bear's Hall, Skird Hall, Endless Hall, etc. The entire route lasts a little over an hour and starts from a tunnel about 4 m wide and 3 m high. The first cave on the way is the same Ancona Abyss, inside which the Duomo Cathedral in Milan could fit. At the top of this cave, you can see a stalactite almost 2.5 meters long! From the Ancona Abyss, the trail leads to the Hall of Two Hundred, which got its name for its length, and then to the Grand Canyon, in the ravines of which water flows. Further there is the Hall of the Bear with underground wells with sulfur springs and the Hall of Skird. The route ends in the Endless Hall.
