CARTEC - Cave of Contemporary Art

The underground cavity inside the Public Gardens consists of a set of very large rooms, communicating with each other, which were built during the Middle Ages to extract blocks of building stone. During the Second World War , was used as air–raid shelter.

At the base of the steep rocky ridge that borders the Buoncammino hill, immediately behind the Municipal Art Gallery is the entrance to a great, ancient underground cavity that leads up to the Public Gardens . This quarry has been used for a variety of uses over time , in particular during the Second World War , was used as a air-raid refuge, creating protective walls and stone benches to accommodate the refugees. At the end of the war the quarry was still used as a dwelling by the people who had their homes destroyed by bombings , and later became a landfill where , after some time, there was every type of waste: from a hearse of the 19th century, to a plaster statue of the Pietà by the sculptor Ciusa of the 19th century. In early 2002, the cavity has been cleaned and prepared for his recovery for public use . Inside it still possible to observe , both on the walls and ceiling , the marks left by the tools of the miners of the time, and also the remains of the quarry from which building blocks were taken for construction and some inscriptions of the 19th century on the walls. In the immediate vicinity of the quarry during the refurbishment of the square , was also brought to light a well, whose characteristics resemble very closely those of the large wells in Castello district , which was the object of a study and detection by the Gruppo Speleo Archeologico Giovanni Spano . Dug into the rock , is 62 meters deep and has a square shape , with sides of 2.80 mx 2.40 mx 2.80 m at the entrance and 4.00 m at the bottom.

CARTEƆ - Cava Contemporary Art - is a dynamic place, a workshop, a site dedicated to promoting contemporary significant reconnections of the urban fabric with unexpected openings in similar contexts, and national and international scenarios.

Creative space and laboratory of ideas, CARTEƆ is a place to experiment integration of intense emotional impact, between secular spaces excavated by man and contemporary art, where shortening the distance with the past can find the meaning of our life .

CARTEƆ, with a program of major exhibitions, will invite a master of contemporary art, whose research has explored the issues of subsoil for site-specific interventions, public art projects and new artistic residencies in order to bring out the "underground" the most intimate nature of the territory.