At six hundred metres above the Tusciano river, a natural cave opens into the hillside above the town of Olevano sul Tusciano. Water carved it over centuries, shaping a cavity large enough to hold, as it turned out, an entire sacred complex. The Longobards arrived in the early Middle Ages and consecrated the cave to the Archangel Michael - warrior, protector, guide of souls - and inside the natural rock they built not one sanctuary but seven, each one a distinct, independent structure. Twenty-nine frescoes survive on the walls. The oldest date to the ninth century.
The site was known far beyond the boundaries of the region. In 870 AD, a Frankish monk named Bernard passed through on his way to Jerusalem and recorded the sanctuary in his travel writings, placing it alongside the tomb of the Apostles in Rome and the sanctuary at Monte Sant'Angelo in Puglia. A pilgrim crossing Europe on foot thought it worth the same attention as the most important Christian sites of the age.
The cave at Olevano sul Tusciano remains one of the least visited sacred sites in the Province of Salerno. Access is on foot, along a path that climbs through the hillside above the town.