The History of the Grotto

The story of the excavation of this grotto actually started in 19 55, which is a year that the some flooding in the area had actually flooded the chapel. The franciscan community who owns this chapel and who operates this chapel decided that the flooding would be a good opportunity to provide renovations to the chapel within the cave. They brought in a young franciscan archaeologist named father virgilio corbo. Corbo came in, pulled up the floors and that allowed an unprecedented look at the history of the grotto as had been used for the last two thousand years.