It’s a small town in Marche, a few kilometers from Ancona.Osimo is on a hill overlooking the valleys of Musone and Aspio.From the public gardens in Via Saffi, the view is endless, ranging from the Adriatic coast to the Apennines, the Gran Sasso to the Sibillini Mountains, all the way to San Marino.
Famous for its fascinating underground, Osimo preserves within its walls, ancient stories and alchemical mysteries: since the first settlements of Piceni, to the unification of Italy (in 1871); even the Templar Knights went by ancient Auximum (as the Romans called the city).Maybe it's right because of the underground that Framasons, since always, like to meet here, in safe, well protected and intimate places.
Below the town of Osimo is its secret twin.
An underworld links the most important palaces (Palazzo Campana, Riccioni Palace, Palazzo Simonetti and Palazzo Gallo) extended throughout the city, forming an hermetic labyrinth.
Here we find ancient esoteric symbols which meaning remains obscure, even for researchers.One thing is certain: the maze was the place where members belonging to Orders of the Knights of Malta and the Templars organized their initiatory path.
An intricate route to an underground world, where the apprentice had to fight and win against the darkness, before attaining enlightenment. From the primordial chaos a mortal soul had the opportunity to emerge into the light of immortality.
Still today the maze is populated with statues and ornaments: pagan deities like Mithras and Dionysus, monsters and alchemical symbols hard to interpret.An mystical path that only those who possess the knowledge can understand and dare.
Here have been listed 88 caves and niches that cover an area of about 9000 square meters. Almost all have a provision to "double comb": they are symmetrical, with cavities in the walls facing one another.
These galleries would even be on different planes, sometimes connected by shafts; the most part of them is now dry.There are also a dozen of narrow tunnels even more ancient, which difference in level should be between five and fifteen meters.The wells should be at least a hundred, used for the water, for changing the air and for the passage of light.
All galleries are high 2,50 m and 1,40 m wide, which is why it’s assumed that the caves were created from a single project.It is believed that the underground passages were used in ancient times, for the escape, food storage, extraction of materials or for the same water flow.But their function could not be just this.
Too much distinctive in their complexity, too much strange in their paths, in the symbolism on the walls and statues along the course.
CAMPANA CAVE
For the innumerable figures carved in the sandstone, these tunnels are still without a definite meaning. They are in the most mysterious places in Italy. No word yet on who it was to want them and why. Every archaeologist has his own theory about it. Some caves date back to the period of the Gothic war, in which Osimo suffered two assaults that forced the citizens to take refuge in the subsoil (538 to 544 AD).
Others speculate that they were made by ancient Celts, and that in them is hidden the Druids’ language.
Still others talk about the mysterious Rosicrucian. Supporting this hypothesis is the fact that in restructuring of Campana Palace participated a famous Freemason of the past, Andrea Vici, architect of the "Illuminati", which loved to decorate with allegorical imagery places where they held their meetings .
MATTEOTTI CAVE
Another place is the indecipherable "Prohibited Cave", in Largo Matteotti. It has a circular plan with a colon in the middle and cavities in walls, along the entire circumference.It remembers an ancient Roman mithraeum, the sacred place where took place rituals dedicated to god Mithras. The plan is in the shape of a horse, with a cross in the vault and five niches on a long seat running along the circumference.
On arriving here we have a feeling of entering into a solemn place, an initiatory room. Here is a mask, representing a woman's head. This type of room is rare but not unique in Italy. The fact that it has been built in other places of Templar origin confirms the hypothesis that it had a particular function, highly spiritual.
SIMONETTI CAVE
It is connected to Palazzo Simonetti, a building that belonged to Sinibaldi family in the twelfth century; a Guelph family, with privileges inherited directly from Charles of Anjou and the Knights of Malta. The Sinibaldi have bishops and Masons in their family tree. Simonetti followed them. They had cardinals, literates and Framasons too in their own family.
In addition to the many Templar and Malta crosses visible in the sandstone, here is a particular symbol, often used in buildings of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre: the triple circle.
It is also called "Labyrinth" and has an hermetic meaning that it represents the path of the novice towards the core, the disclosure.Here is a symbolic picture: the mermaid with two tails, often depicted in Templar buildings. It is also known as "Melusine," a fairy from whom they said to descend the Merovingians and Plantagenets. Melusine is also a deity linked to the Mother Goddess, as opposed to Mother Earth, since it is related to water.
RICCIONI CAVE
Cave under Riccioni Palace, are particularly striking. A tunnel leads into a hall where, in the entrance, is a large cross with eight arms.This cave has a plant in the shape of five pointed star.
CATHEDRAL OF ST LEOPARD
On top of the hill on which stands Osimo, is the cathedral of San Leopardo.
It was built in the eighth century over an ancient temple dedicated to the god Asclepius and the goddess Igea.The pagan temples were usually built on the hilltops, in isolated places, closer to heaven and to God.
The exterior of the cathedral is richly decorated with carved images, but also contains an indecipherable message, common to every Templar building.
The Templar order was particularly close to the figure of '"Architect", an important man, because he could achieve religious buildings "live", a sort of "device" for contact with God.Churches, especially in the Gothic period, were a compendium of alchemy and numerology, built according to special rules, in imitation of the sacred Temple of King Solomon.
One of the most important corporations of builders had the name of "Enfants de Salomon" directly connected to the Order of the Temple. The other two orders were called "Enfants du Maitre Jacques" and "Enfants du Pere Soubise" and were connected to Hiram, the holy spirit of initiation. Master Philip belonged to the first corporation, architect of the church of Santa Maria della Piazza in Ancona, the same man who built the Gothic Cathedral of Santa Tecla and San Leopard in Osimo.
Those who look closely will find that next to the snake in the left, at the entrance of the church, there is a bust of King Solomon with a vase in her hand. The Master has also left his signature in a crypt, dating back to 1191, included in a cartouche.
Even the central rose window, surrounded by heads with grotesque expressions, fantasy animals, and a mermaid hides an alchemical message, as with any niche, decoration, ornament inside and outside the cathedral.
The crypt (containing the remains of San Leopardo and martyrs SS.Sinisio and Fiorenzo) was built using sixteen columns of earlier buildings, both of Pagans and Christians. Still, near the rectory, we find a "hexagram of Solomon," which has always been considered a powerful talisman.
Right under the Baptistery of San Giovanni, also made by Master Philip, there was aWell-tank, mirrors image of the baptismal font, which is located in the middle of a circular room.What it was this underground baptistery?
And what else can we find out, going around the streets and buildings of the town?
Inside the town hall are exposed ancient Roman statues, each of which has missed its head. That’s why the inhabitants of Osimo are called "headless".
For everyone, however, this city remains an unsolved mystery, a fascinating initiatory trip restricted to the few who know the secret language, the key to understand the message.
SCHIACCIATA ALLE CIPOLLEFocaccia with onions
Ingredients:
gr white flour. 300
olive oil gr. 70
yeast gr. 15
a large onion
a spoonful of lard
six sage leaves
salt
Preparation:
Pour onto the pastry board at least gr. 50 of flour and mix with the crumbled yeast, add enough warm water.Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a cloth and place it in a warm place, leaving it rise for about an hour, until it has doubled its volume.Then put the dough on a pastry board and unit and the remaining flour.Mix thoroughly, then place the dough again into a bowl and, with a knife, mark a cross on top of the paste.Then cover with a towel and put it to rise again (for at least 2 hours) in a warm place, away from air currents.Meanwhile, slice the onion, arrange the slices on a sieve and add a little 'salt. When the dough is leavened place it on a pastry board, add the lard, three spoon of oil and a pinch of salt, then mix it well and place it in a well-oiled baking sheet.Cover the surface with the onions, sprinkle with the chopped sage leaves and then pour the remaining oil on focaccia.Put the schiacciata again to rise for at least half an hour, then put it in very hot oven (200 ° C) and cook for about 30 minutes. Serve it hot.