The cave of the Tree of Life

Brancaleone Vetus is in a breathless location, high and with a 360 degree view on the top of a very vast and fertile land. The initial city was excavated in the rock. The village is built on sandstone and the different layers are visible when entering the main site.

In the perimeter of Brancaleone Vetus, the caves are disseminated and a total of almost 30 have been found but are not yet all clean and accessible. I entered through a series of connected caves with a wonderful acoustic, which I believe to be perfect for music performance. One cave, known as the Tree of Life's cave is still shrouded in mystery. In the center of the cave stands a column which has been interpreted as symbolizing a delicate tree trunk. In a corner of the same cave, you can find the symbol of a Greek-Byzantine cross and peacock.

Over time the disseminated caves were used to store water and grains for the noble families that lived in the aristocratic palaces that dominate the land of Brancaleone Vetus. The village was finally abandoned in the 1950s.

Brancaleone was the stage for land fights and was also called the"city of jasmine" as it was known for the large and intense jasmine production used for the extraction of the fragrance. Can you imagine the breeze in Brancaleone during the blooming? Jasmine flower were collected by women who more than others suffered in the crisis of the '60s when fragrances started being produced artificially by the beauty industry.

To the end of my day, I visited the Room Museum of Cesare Pavese. Between August of 1935 and March of 1936 in fact Brancaleone hosted Cesare Pavese, the Italian poet who was accused of being an antifascist and therefore was forced by Mussolini's regime to "the confino" in the south of Italy. He arrived in the main street of Brancaleone in handcuffs as a dangerous criminal, he was the same person who finally gave Latin and Greek after-school lessons to the locals. Here is an extract of one of his poems:

Passion for Solitude

Outside, after supper, the stars will come out to touch

the wide plain of the earth. The stars are alive,

but not worth these cherries, which I’m eating alone.

I look at the sky, know that lights already are shining

among rust-red roofs, noises of people beneath them.

A gulp of my drink, and my body can taste the life

of plants and of rivers. It feels detached from things.

A small dose of silence suffices, and everything’s still,

in its true place, just like my body is still.

By Cesare Pavese

Translated by Geoffrey Brock

Brancaleone Vetus and the Cesare Pavese Room are well preserved by the pro-loco of Brancaleone and excursions in the area can be organized by Kalabria Experience.

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