Insurance Agent Builds 8th Wonder of the World

The Temples of Damanhur are a series of stunning painted underground rooms and tunnels, as breathtaking as the Sistine Chapel. But their origins may surprise you.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on May 27 2011

Step into the Temples of Damanhur, and you’ll discover a sight as stunning as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, or the Pyramids of Egypt. Beneath the ancient rocky hillsides of the Italian Alps, you’ll find intricate painted rooms and passages, tunnels and temples, and a giant stained-glass dome.

The 300,000-cubic-foot architectural masterpiece seems like an incredible relic from an ancient civilization. It’s even been claimed as the “Eight Wonder of the World” by the Italian government.

So you might be shocked to learn about the Temples’ true origins: The first room of the Temples wasn’t built during the time of the ancient Roman Empire, but a mere 30 years ago.

And the brilliant visionary behind the Temples’ creation? An insurance agent, of all people.

Oberto Airaudi is no typical insurance agent, though. Now 57, he first conceived of the Temples at the tender age of ten. As a boy, he claims, he’d envisioned his own past lives, which were filled with glorious temples, and a community of people who all lived together peacefully. In his mind, he could visualize every last detail of the Temples of Damanhur – so he made it his mission to recreate them in the Italian countryside.

He started out by digging holes beneath his parents’ yard. But after leaving their house and getting a job in the insurance world, he launched a much more ambitious plan: In 1977, he selected a cliffside as the ideal site for his dream temples. He built a house beside it, where he and several friends would live while they worked on the underground creation. Over the next sixteen years, Airudi and a team of volunteers worked tirelessly to build the spectacular Temples.

Unfortunately, the group hadn’t received permission to build the temples, and eventually, the police discovered what they were up to and shut down the operation. Luckily, the sixteen completed rooms of the Temples were not destroyed, and were eventually opened to public access – so next time you’re in Italy, make sure you head down for a visit.

As Airaudi told The Daily Mail, “They are to remind people that we are all capable of much more than we realize, and that hidden treasures can be found within every one of us once you know how to access them.”

Check out these breathtaking photos of the Temples.

From the archives - originally published November 2007

Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Weird,

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