L’architettura rupestre di culto nell’Appennino Centrale delle province di Ancona, Macerata ed Ascoli Piceno

Is the Valadier Temple in Genga (AN) and the system of relationships it establishes with the natural environment an uncum in the area or is it the more recent outcome of a distinctive trait of this part of the Central Apennines and more generally a sign of a centuries-old relationship between this land and the man who inhabited it? In the mountains and valleys near the Temple, roughly corresponding to the provinces of Ancona, Macerata and Ascoli Piceno, karst phenomena are still in place. In these places the old action of water has produced, especially on the steeper eastern slopes of the Apennines, a landscape dotted with gorges, ravines and caves. The Cadastre of Caves of the Marche Region for the provinces mentioned in 2015 recorded more than four hundred and twenty caves, caverns, shelters, and wells, and in many of these places the presence of man in past eras is evidenced by artifacts and/or documents. The very large number of these localities, spread over a vast area, as well as some recent archaeological findings, and the various myths and legends that still persist in the local tradition, lead one to think how these spaces are expressive of a precise character of this territory. But what role did these places play in the past and what role might they still play in contemporary times? In the second part the text goes further trying to outline some general features of these places in order to define the type, focusing more on cultural value than physical space.