The Cavallone cave is at 1475 metres in the Taranta Peligna area and is the only cave you can visit in the Maiella National Park. Already known about in the seventeenth century it began to be valued as a tourist location from the nineteenth century.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the painter Francesco Paolo Michetti visited the cave and he draw inspiration for the scenery of the pastoral tragedy âLa Figlia di Jorioâ (Jorioâs daughter) by Gabriele DâAnnunzio. From that point the cave acquired notoriety as the cave of Jorioâs daughter.
Since 1978, a funicular railway allows access to many more tourists.
The area within the cave that can be visited is a kilometre long with shafts and rooms opening from it. DâAnnunzio immortalized the names of these rooms in his works. As you enter you pass through the Aligi room, the Magic Forest, Danteâs pit, the Lace room and the Fairy room.
In these places the incessant dripping has created and modelled the rock forming a charmed landscape where time seems to have stood still. You can visit the cave only in summer, but it is important to know that the temperature (10°C) and the humidity (80 to 90 %) require proper clothing.
The area within the cave that can be visited is a kilometre long with shafts and rooms opening from it. DâAnnunzio immortalized the names of these rooms in his works.