Monte Sant’Angelo is a place I visited with my family during my last stay in the town of San Giovanni Rotondo. I have already written two posts about this place whose history is closely linked to that of Padre Pio, a friar who later became a saint. Since my adolescence I have visited San Giovanni Rotondo many times and in one of them, done with other members of my family, a visit to Monte Sant’Angelo was also planned, another place of worship due to the presence of the Sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo venerated by the faithful. Regarding that visit there was a singular episode; we were in a van and while we were trying to reach Monte Sant’Angelo, one of my younger cousins started to cry and get scared. The reason was the road we were traveling that evening; totally dark, lonely and flanked by very tall trees that did not allow us to see anything. Probably this scenario triggered an incredible fear in this cousin of mine who was very young at the time. Although I have returned to San Giovanni Rotondo other times, I have never managed to go to Monte Sant'Angelo, finally in 2020 I planned a visit and in doing so exorcise the image of this place until then represented exclusively with a dark and lonely tree-lined road. We visited Monte Sant’Angelo in the evening, arriving there around 6 PM. The large parking lot where we left the car was right next to the historic center but above all it was a few steps from the huge Norman-Swabian-Aragonese castle. I had no idea of its existence, after all we had gone to Monte Sant’Angelo to visit the sanctuary. The castle was a real fortress and above all it was very well preserved. The visual impact I had with the castle was that of a semicircular tower built entirely of stone. In my city we have an Aragonese castle that has only two towers still intact, the rest has collapsed so you it’s not easy to perceive what its real size could have been. This means that the type of structure of the castle of Monte Sant’Angelo didn’t surprise me because I already knew it, what impressed me instead was its size and preservation! The castle was surrounded by a wide and deep moat and further ahead there was a walkway that connected the castle to the part beyond the moat. If I remember correctly, at that time the castle was still open to visitors but there wasn't enough time because we were there to visit the sanctuary. Right from the start, the houses of Monte Sant’Angelo revealed their characteristic features; they were white and some had only the ground floor with orange tile roofs. Surrounded by this type of houses and through narrow streets, we arrived at the sanctuary after about 10 minutes. It was small but very original; detached on the right was the octagonal tower in white stone that rose on three levels and the sanctuary remained to the left of it and deeper. The sanctuary was aesthetically formed with two large arches that covered a sort of patio where there were then the two entrance doors. Both structures were closed inside a gate interspersed with stone turrets. Even if I expected a large structure, I must say that that contained perimeter where the tower took center stage at the sanctuary, I liked it immediately. The fact that the area was closed gave me more the sensation of an intimate and private dimension, overshadowing the small size of the sanctuary which nevertheless managed to emanate sensations of spirituality. A bit like in the movie “The Goonies” where a small fireplace hid a much larger dimension, the sanctuary also gave me similar sensations once I passed through the entrance door. Inside, in fact, the ground floor maintained the same dimensions as the outside but then taking a staircase built in stone, the spaces expanded as if by magic. The interior was incredible not only for the structure that in addition to the large blocks of precisely cut stone, also had many filling pebbles but also because everything was much larger. Arriving down, there was the altar built under a sort of stone arch. In front of the altar there were the benches for prayer and a person passed between them observing that no one took photos enforcing this rule. Clearly I immediately disobeyed this rule and not for lack of respect for the place of worship but because I thought it was my right. I am of the opinion that when institutions such as churches or museums deny the possibility of taking photos, it is not to preserve what is sacred or unique but to hide something! I remember that in the past before digital photography, in some places it was forbidden to shoot with the flash, at that time the only way to illuminate the scene. They said that the light could ruin the portraits and nonsense of that kind. Today that with technology no artificial light is necessary, prohibiting photos is apparently just a question of marketing. It is as if they did not want a work of art from a place to be reproduced or printed to show it to others and therefore damage a museum or a church or paradoxically the exact opposite; with the same process make them too popular and therefore be damaged by mass tourism. These, even if opposite, seem to me to be the only logical explanations, however I believe that reality is different. Personally I believe that both some pictorial works and places of so-called worship, hide through their form and expression, let's say secrets or something that clashes with the classic narrative invented by the elite that governs the world in the last two centuries. In the case of the cave of the sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo, both the shape of the stone that formed a sort of arch, and the structures that were underneath and around it, had something strange. More precisely, for example, it was not clear whether the structures such as some columns had been built later and dug under the rock or if they had already been there and then some event had shaped the rock above them. For me it was more likely that there had been some larger and more imposing structure there that was then destroyed in some way and subsequently other structures were created always in the past confusing everything. I am sorry for the spiritual side of the cave which is the main reason why people visit it but personally my visit there was focused on these sensations and the few reflections that I was able to make on them. For this reason I immediately took some photos, to have the chance of doing some studies later, something that should be allowed to everyone in a so-called democratic society unless something is hidden. The visit to the sanctuary lasted about thirty minutes after which we went back up and together with my family we took some classic souvenir photos with the outside of the sanctuary. After this visit we continued exploring the city but almost immediately my sister and I we split from our parents. This was because Monte Sant’Angelo was full of uphill and downhill streets and this was a problem for them. The city immediately showed itself as characteristic, with narrow streets, closed to cars and made of stone, along with houses of the same material and those plastered in white. The historic center reminded me a lot of Spanish cities like Setenil de las Bodegas that I had visited almost a year before. At a certain point, together with my sister, we ended up in a part where everything was completely white from the houses to the street, a unique sensation like walking inside a place made of milk, an atmosphere from a Tim Burton film. We explored that part until we reached the panoramic point overlooking the sea, a very beautiful view that I didn’t even know existed. Afterwards, we retraced the streets backwards taking dozens of photos in singular points such as the stairs of some private homes. I really liked that part of Monte Sant’Angelo and the fact that it was not populated by other people or tourists gave an added value especially to the atmosphere of the place. For a short time those houses and those streets transformed for me into a surreal place like the one created by the imagination of a child, a childish but positive sensation. The visit to Monte Sant'Angelo lasted about an hour and a half and we left the city in the same way we discovered it, that is, with a view of the castle. There I took the last photos before sunset, happy with the discovery of a place that left me with only positive feelings. The long wait to visit the city, especially wanted by my parents, made me discover a place very different from what I thought and that helped me connect other dots for my independent studies. The more new places I explore, the more with observation alone I can understand things that with school indoctrination I have never been able to understand. Travel and the discovery of places as therapy on the truth; Monte Sant'Angelo, like many other places, was also this. A.M.
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