Today the Daily Mail carries an article about a most unusual underground architectural complex in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy, 30 miles from Turin, in the valley of Valchiusella. There, 100 feet under the ground, are nine temples excavated into five underground levels. They occupy some 300,000 cubic feet and their mosaic, glass, painted, and sculptural decoration (with the largest Tiffany cupola in the world) narrates the history of humanity.
The astounding temple complex belongs to a spiritual community called Damanhur that has 800 members, a social and political structure, a constitution, 40 economic activities, its own currency, schools, and a daily newspaper. Founded by Oberto Airaudi in 1977, the Damanhur community is something like a mystical school, for it disregards the boundaries and constraints that we as humans have set upon ourselves.
One of the goals of Damanhur is the re-awakening of the human being; as a spiritual, material, divine being, free from patterns that reduce its essence. In Damanhur every citizen chooses one of the spiritual paths called ‘ways’ to experiment with their spiritual growth, according to their own aspirations, preferences, and skills. In Damanhur the most significant aspects of the day and year are marked by ritual moments in which the meaning and the awareness of existence is celebrated.
No doubt, the Temples of Damanhur (named, by the way, for the ancient subterranean Egyptian temple and meaning City of Light) are part of those rituals.
The little known temple complex was begun by Oberto Airaudi - who prefers to use the name ‘Falco’ - in 1977. It was built entirely in secret (no planning permits had been granted by the Italian government) by Damanhur volunteers who came from all around the world and worked in four-hour shifts for the next 16 years with no formal plans other than Falco’s sketches and visions, funding their scheme by setting up small businesses to serve the local community. By 1991, several of the nine chambers were almost complete with stunning murals, mosaics, statues, secret doors and stained glass windows - but the secret was about to become known to the public.
As Hazel Courtney recounts in her Daily Mail article:
The first time the police came it was over alleged tax evasion and still the temples lay undiscovered. But a year later the police swooped on the community demanding: “Show us these temples or we will dynamite the entire hillside.”
Falco and his colleagues duly complied and opened the secret door to reveal what lay beneath.
Three policemen and the public prosecutor hesitantly entered, but as they stooped down to enter the first temple - named the Hall of the Earth - their jaws dropped.
Inside was a circular chamber measuring 8m in diameter.
A central sculpted column, depicting a three dimensional man and woman, supported a ceiling of intricately painted glass.
The astonished group walked on to find sculpted columns covered with gold leaf, more than 8m high.
Stunned by what they had found, the authorities decided to seize the temples on behalf of the government.
Eventually, the group was allowed to continue its work and the underground temple complex is now the subject of a book, Temples of Damanhur, by Silvia Buffagni, Alex Grey, Rob Calef, and Roberto Benzi.
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