San Giovanni Church and Sibyl's Cave - Marsala

It's inside a meaningful archaeological site and had burn built in 1555 by the Jesuits.

The San Giovanni al Boeo Church lies inside an Archaeological park of great interest and was built in 1555 by the Jesuits. It had formerly been part, together with Santa Maria della Grotta cave, of the ancient Abbey of Padri Basiliani. It had been built covering an under-ground set known as the Sibyl 's Cave, which has in its middle a spring of fresh water.

The San Giovanni al Boeo Church lies inside an Archaeological park of great interest and was built in 1555 by the Jesuits. It had formerly been part, together with Santa Maria della Grotta cave, of the ancient Abbey of Padri Basiliani. It had been built covering an under-ground set known as the Sibyl's Cave, which has in its middle a spring of fresh water. This fresh water spring was believed to have divinations and is commonly known as the Cuman Sibyl's tomb. The Cave is 4,80 m under the ground and is made up of a round central room, linked to other two rooms, one of which is north pointed while the other is west pointed. The main room had been excavated in the rock and covered by a low brick-worked dome. This dome looks by mean of a skylight into the upper church. There is a  squared pool in the middle of the main room. This is full of water and not really deep and had been used by the first christians during baptism's ceremonies. The north-pointed room has a semicircular shape and it shows an apse; at its ground level springs a source which pours direct into the pool in the main room. In front of the cave there is a big stone altar with the marble high-relief of San Giovanni Battista aged  XV c.  Even the west-pointed room had been excavated in the rock, but it has an irregular shape and was probably part of a former pit. The flat ceiling has two big shelves meant to give strength to the building. The three rooms are covered with frescoes and mosaics from the II and III c. A.D. while the paved floor in the north-pointed room, with its stylized flowers, is from the first half of IV c. A.D. Outside the church had been found a statue representing Venus Callipigia from the II c. A.D. this together with the paved floor made the archaeologists think that the cave had formerly been the "Specus Aestivus" in a bigger Domus Patrizia.