Through the wardrobe to Narnia

I joined a virtual tour this afternoon of an ancient commune in the centre of Italy called Narni (Narnia in Latin).  It inspired the writer, C S Lewis to use the name, Narnia, for his Chronicles.  He found the name on an old map when he was at school during World War I.

In 1979, a group of young cave explorers discovered a 12th century underground church which had lain hidden and forgotten for centuries.  The church was a Dominican church called St Michael's.  On further exploration, they found a cell containing masonic symbols.  It turned out to be a room where heretics were tortured by the Inquisition, and one of those was a captain in the army  who was also a freemason.  The underground church is now a tourist attraction run by volunteers who maintain the site.

There are two other tenuous connections to C S  Lewis and that is San Lucia who may have inspired Lucy, one of the children in the Narnia Chronicles, and a stone lion, which may have inspired Aslan.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article on Narni.