LAKE AISO
Lake Aiso, also known as Lake of the Abyss or of Hell, is an artesian spring located about 2 km north of Bevagna (PG).
The lake has a perfectly circular shape of c.a. 30m in diameter and 15m in depth.
It may be for the stories handed down over the centuries by the inhabitants of the area or for the copious presence of frogs and toads in the pond (impure animals for the Bible, family members of witches for the ancient Christians, therefore pure evil), the fact is that the Lake of Aiso is surrounded by mystery. From time to time still today it happens to find in local newspapers publications on phantom facts or apparitions concerning him.
But of all the stories, certainly the most fascinating one concerns its origins, narrated in an old legend known since 1600:
“On the place where the lake now stands was the house of a rich and miserly peasant named Chiarò, very ungrateful to the Lord. His wife, on the other hand, was a pious and charitable woman. Against every devout custom and despite the pleas of his wife, Chiarò wanted to thresh the wheat on the day of St. Anna, traditionally dedicated to rest and to the feast of the mother of the Madonna. The voice of an Angel warned his wife to run away taking with her what she held most dear, the house would collapse. Then the woman took her little baby in her arms to whom she was still giving milk and fled. The house with the threshing floor where he was threshing sank with all the men who worked there, submerged by a sudden whirlpool coming from the earth. In her escape, a stream of water chased the woman, threatening to drown her too. Again the Angel’s voice told her to put the baby down, because as she grew up he would come of the same mold as her father. The woman obeyed and saved herself, and where she drowned the child, a small spring called the Aisillo was formed. Legend also has it that since then, every year on St. Anne’s day, those who visit Aiso can see the remains of the submerged house through the water and hear Chiarò’s voice asking for forgiveness. “
