Italy is famous for many things, from stunning seaside towns to historic cities like Rome. But few people know that one of its towns is hiding a secret underground city with more than 1,000 tunnels carved out over thousands of years. Orvieto, in the Umbria region of central Italy, sits on top of a large volcanic rock known as the Rupe.
Underneath it lies a huge underground network of hand-dug tunnels, wells, caves and cisterns that were created over a period of nearly three millennia. The town has been settled since at least the 9th century BC and was once known as Velzna. The city belonged to the Etruscan civilisation, which ruled parts of central Italy long before the rise of the Roman Empire.
The tunnels were rediscovered in the 1980s when a landslide hit part of the Rupe near the Duomo di Orvieto.
Local speleologists, curious about old rumours that the town was “empty underneath”, began exploring and uncovered more than 1,200 chambers beneath the surface.
According to Orvieto Underground, the hidden world includes square rooms linked by galleries, narrow passageways, ancient wells and deep shafts.
Many of the wells date back to the Etruscan period, which lasted from around 900BC to 27BC, and were used to access underground water during sieges.
In some areas, the walls are covered in small square niches known as dovecotes, which were used for farming pigeons.
In the medieval period, locals also dug olive oil mills directly into the rock, complete with presses, grinders and feeding troughs for animals.
Orvieto Underground says one of the most interesting discoveries came when a restaurant owner in the town noticed a collapsing wall in his cellar.
Behind it, he found a huge vertical shaft, over 30 metres deep, which turned out to be a well from the Etruscan period.
Further digging revealed even more tunnels hidden below.
Visitors today can explore parts of this underground world through guided tours, which begin in Piazza del Duomo and take guests through two of the largest and most historically important chambers.
