Grotto of San Michele in Faicchio

At about 500 metres above sea level, on Monte Monaco di Gioia in the territory of Faicchio, opens a natural cavity that the Lombards consecrated to the Archangel Michael around 700. Restored and frescoed in the 12th century, it was solemnly inaugurated in 1172. We are fascinated by its six-metre-high semicircular entrance and the stone staircase leading to the upper rooms, the first of which was used as a church.Inside we find columns carved out of the rock and a 17th–18th-century altar, while the Byzantine-style frescoes depict the Redeemer, the Madonna and Child, an Annunciation and the Crucifix, sadly marked by damp. Above the entrance, since 2002, a shrine in Cerreto ceramic shows St Michael defeating the devil. We recommend reaching it on foot along one of the two paths, one of which starts from the friary of San Pasquale.