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Start of the Aurora trail

Start of the Aurora Trail

Malaparte Cave near Galceti Park

On the road that goes up to the Convent of Montesenario, just before arriving, a small road branches off on the left (signs) that leads first to the cave of Blessed Alessio and then to the spring and cave of Sani Filippo Benizi.

Near the Sanctuary of Montesenario, a small road on the left for those going up, leads quickly to this pleasant and suggestive place where the cave of the blessed Alessio is located. Continuing on the road downhill you arrive at the spring and the cave of San Filippo Benizi.

Discovered the door to hell told by Malaparte: it is a cave in Galceti Where did Dante go from to go to hell? But from Prato of course! Curzio Malaparte was sure of it and in some little-known stories he wrote it clearly: the gate of Hades is located in the city that gave him birth and precisely in Galceti. The exact location of the cave – narrated in texts such as The adventures of a captain of misfortune (1927), Imaginary Tuscany (1936), Games in front of Hell (1937), The golden sun of Etruscan Hell (1956), as well as a Maledetti Toscani (1957) – was identified after careful research by the association «Curzio Malaparte Prato in the world», founded and chaired by Walter Bernardi. Here are some passages from the story in which Malaparte describes the cave of hell. «The memory of the people of Prato wants us to go down to Hell along the road to Figline. Dante passed by there, along the Bardena: the wild forest is the pine forest of Galceti». «A few years ago a cartman from Coiano, whom I saw and knew up close, once entered a green marble quarry that had been abandoned for centuries, right under the third hump of Monferrato, near Figline, and came out with his face burnt , half blind and deaf, speechless with fright. His name was Agenor. From his hat, found under a stone at the entrance to a green marble quarry, at the bottom of the Galceti pine forest, it was understood that he had descended to Hell, all dressed up and with his feet in shoes, like Orpheus».

Speleological equipment is required to access the cave, you can contact the local speleological groups (Pratese Speleological Union or Calenzanese Speleological Union), obviously it's worth it !!!

The cave and fountain of San Filippo Benizi, with a small temple covering the spring, built in 1629, bears the significant and elegant inscription on the cornice: "SITI NE PEREANT FRATRES / B. PHIL. FONTEM APERIT MCCLIV / SITU NE PEREAT FONS / F HENRY ANTIST G. OP.IT MDCXXIX "(" In order that the friars would not die of thirst, Blessed Philip discovered the fountain in 1254, so that the source could not be lost due to negligence, the general among Henry the 1629 ").