A few steps from via Monastero Maggiore, at n. 2 is the Celtic Hypogeum. It consists of various underground environments, dug into the rock with a primordial technique, which develop at different levels, in approximately K-shaped branches.
A steep staircase leads into the central chamber, from which three corridors branch off. In the walls there are niches and rough pallets, but the greatest mystery is represented by three rough masks.
The original function of this very particular monument, which has no counterpart in Friuli, is still an unresolved question. Apart from the imaginative interpretations amalgamated with legend, a funerary use of the hypogeum in the Celtic era has been hypothesized, while other scholars believe the locals were prisons from the Roman or Lombard period. The hypogeum appears to have been created from a natural cavity along the rocky right bank of the Natisone river, which flows below. Dating back to the pre-Roman age, perhaps Celtic, its function at the time is unknown. Given the closure of the natural opening towards the river, it perhaps served as a water cistern and was certainly reused later, even if the reason is not known. Connecting steps were dug into the rock, as were stone seats and benches, pillars and, the most curious, two crudely sculpted faces that look like millennial vigilantes, custodians of very ancient cults. The presence of water, which wets the floor surfaces and filters through the porous rocks, could be indicative, prelude to possible rituals whose execution is unknown. On the left you can see two stone seats, which necessarily narrow the passage: two people could have sat here, perhaps as a function of the ritual.
Information on the Celtic Hypogeum
Via Monastero Maggiore, 2
33043 Cividale del Friuli (Udine)
0432710422
tourism@cividale.net
https://www.cividale.net
Pig iron: MIBACT
