In the seventh book of the "Aeneid", Virgil had identified there one of the entrance gates to the Underworld, as Lake Averno on the Phlegraean coast.
Another small lake, in the Ansanto Valley, which seethes and gives off potentially lethal vapours: they are the Mefite of Rocca San Felice, a site of great naturalistic and scientific value. And archaeological too. The exhalations of the small body of water are carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, which produces unmistakable, literally mephitic, miasmas that are felt all around. In fact there is no trace of vegetation nearby. The concentration of carbon dioxide, then, reaches levels unique in the world. Especially since it is not a volcanic phenomenon, like the Phlegrean ones.
The place was so special that the ancient inhabitants of Irpinia founded there in the seventh century BC. a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Mefite, protector of female fertility. Discovered in the mid-twentieth century, the numerous and valuable finds are exhibited in the Archaeological Section of the Irpino Museum in Avellino. In the Middle Ages, San Felice di Nola founded a small church dedicated to Santa Felicita on the spot where the Italian sanctuary of infernal fame was.
Ph: Francescabrt
