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Hermitage of Rupecava (ruderi) - Pisa in Tuscany

The hermitage is one of the most ancient and mysterious sites of the Pisan Mountains, even if today it is reduced to a ruin. Take the old road to Lucca skirting the mountains; when you arrive in Molina di Quosa, make for Quattro Venti (after Ciapino and Fondetto) up to the Romagna (famous for the Nazi slaughter) where there is a path leading to the old hermitage. The hermitage has always been charming and mysterious: it is said that in the Roman period, in the two caves surrounding it, many rites and orgies took place in honour of the gods Bacchus and Pan.

The first cave is in front of the entrance to the hermitage and was used as a refectory by the monks and later as a granary. The second cave, known as “Grotta della Goccia “ (Italian for “The drop cave”) because the water dripping from the vault had miraculous powers, kept a tabernacle with terracotta statues of the 17th century representing the Virgin between two Saints. This place was characterised by a mixture of sacred and profane, popular legends and fantasies, like that of Guglielmo, the hermit who in 1214 built in the pagan place a solitary dwelling-place that later became the present-day hermitage. According to another legend, the theologian St. Augustin stayed in this hermitage in order to execute the work “De Trinidade”; unfortunately, the small church of Santa Maria (which was restored), an altar of 1735 and a small mosaic on the floor are all that remains of the original structure, mostly cancelled by the Second World War.

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