In which country can you find this temple within a cave?

In Italy, you can visit grand cathedrals in Italian squares, along with crowds of worshippers and tourists, or seek out spiritual isolation in the Temple of Valadier.

Located in the town of Genga, the stunning, Neoclassical-style church in the shape of an octagon sits beneath overhanging rocks of a mountain gorge. The rugged natural surroundings of the limestone Frasassi Caves and the Sentino River below contrast beautifully with the temple’s classic beauty.

The eight sides of the church are said to represent the resurrection of Jesus Christ which, according to the Epistle of Barnabas, happened on the eighth day after his death.

The octagonal ‘Tempietto’ (Small Temple) was commissioned in 1828 by Pope Leo XII, who was originally from Genga. Made of white marble, the building was designed by Giuseppe Valadier (hence the name), and once housed a statue of Antonio Canova’s ‘Madonna and Child’. The original statue now resides in the civic museum of Genga; a copy has been substituted.

Although the temple in the hidden cave mouth was meant to serve as a refuge/sanctuary for sinners seeking absolution, the local population had been taking refuge in the cave where the temple sits since the 10th century, using it to hide out from attacks by marauding enemy tribes. When the Tempietto was built, a number of human skeletons were found in the opening of the cave.