Broken Toilet Leads To One Of The Most Significant Discoveries In History
Once in a while, someone uncovers an ancient mystery, like something out of an Indiana Jones film. Whether abandoned catacombs, archaic books, ancient treasure, or something else entirely, these discoveries can help us understand history, piece by piece. Of course, archeologists and historians most often unearth these discoveries. However, occasionally, regular folk find some incredible relics.
Take, for example, Mr. Luciano Faggiano, a 60-year-old Italian man. While trying to fix his toilet, Faggiano found something rather unexpected. His discovery would soon take him deeper and deeper into the depths of history. Soon enough, Faggiano needed to alert the authorities and his life changed forever…
1. A Man in Lecce
Luciano Faggiano, a 60-year-old, grew up and lived his entire life in Lecce, Italy. Leece lacks the tourism draw of cities like Rome, instead relying on olive oil and ceramics production. As Faggiano grew older, he didn’t want to work in agriculture or ceramics. Instead, Faggiano had a very particular business in mind, one that might actually help bring tourists to the area!
You see, ever since Faggiano was a little boy, he dreamed of running his own business: an Italian restaurant. While he had to wait some time, Faggiano finally started to realize his ambitions. Little did he know that his dream would lead to the greatest adventure of his life…
2. Following His Dream
As years passed by, Faggiano never gave up on the idea of having his Italian eatery. As such, he saved as much as he could while still providing for his children and wife. Thankfully, after many years, Faggiano had saved enough money to finally pursue his life-dream. As any entrepreneur can tell you, this is an exciting time!
Soon enough, Faggiano started to look at different locations in Lecce that would make a perfect fit for his dream. After a little bit of searching, he found a spot that suited his needs perfectly. However, growing up in Lecce, Faggiano knew he needed to investigate the building fully. After all, buildings that are centuries, or more, old are often not up to code…
3. Purchasing An Entire Building
While the building that Faggiano wanted to buy was quite old, it had thankfully been refurbished. Recently, the owner had painted the walls in white and installed a fresh, brand new heating system. So while it had history, the building would still keep guests warm and happy. What’s more, it had the perfect location to make his business a success.
So, Faggiano purchased the entire building! Unsurprisingly, he had a very clear vision in mind. After all, he had had quite some time to think about it. Faggiano had plans for every single floor in the building. Hopefully, he would get the family business started in no time! At least, that’s what Faggiano thought.
4. Big Plans Ahead
As a visionary man, Faggiano had already thought every single detail through. First of all, he would turn the lower level of the property into his dream eatery.
Then, after getting the business running, he would move to the property’s upper levels. Faggiano lived his wife, Anna Maria Sano, and his 12-year-old son, Davide. Furthermore, Faggiano also had two other sons who no longer lived with him. Now, they’d always have a place to stay! While Faggiano was incredibly excited about his new project, he also noticed some things about the building. He would need to fix a couple of things before he could even think of opening his eatery.
5. There’s Only One Problem
While Faggiano seemed to have the perfect plan, he would later discover that it wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought. As soon as he purchased the building, Faggiano noticed that one of the toilets downstairs was utterly unusable.
After looking into it, Faggiano couldn’t quite figure it out. At that moment, he thought that it was just a broken pipe or, maybe, something was blocking the toilet’s sewage. However, Faggiano knew one thing for certain: it would cost him some money to fix it. So, he went with the lowest costing option: hire some helping hands and fix the toilet himself! Little did Faggiano know that his actions would lead to a massive discovery…
6. Family Came to the Help
When the time came to turn the ground floor of his building into an eatery, Faggiano asked his older sons, Marco and Andrea, to come home and help. Of course, they would also help him with the toilet! The last thing that any restaurateur wants is backed-up sewage making its way in.
After his sons arrived, they immediately got to work. Faggiano and his sons’ dug a trench, that way they could locate the pipe in question and figure out the problem. With any luck, this project would only take a couple of days, and everyone would be able to return to their normal lives. However, that isn’t exactly what happened.
7. Searching For a Broken Pipe
Faggiano was determined to locate the source of the problem. What’s more, he had to do anything possible to stop it from spreading any further. Upon closer inspection, Faggiano realized that a leaking pipe in the toilet was causing the issue. As such, Faggiano and his sons started digging up the pipe.
Even though Faggiano thought he could fix the pipe himself, there was also the possibility that they had to replace the whole thing with a brand new one. However, in the process of doing this, Faggiano and his sons would find something rather extraordinary. What’s more, something that they couldn’t have imagined, not in a million years.
8. It Shouldn’t Take Too Much Time
Once he located the issue, Faggiano believed fixing the pipe wouldn’t take too long. “I said [to my sons], ‘Come. I need your help, and it will only be a week,'” Faggiano told The New York Times. Of course, Faggiano had no idea what he was truly dealing with! Meanwhile, Marco and Andrea were looking forward to solving this issue quickly so they could return to their ordinary lives.
If only! One week into the process, the team of father and sons stumbled across something completely unexpected. As they continued to dig, the family uncovered a false floor! While they had no idea what hid underneath the false floor, they were eager to continue investigating…
9. The False Floor
As soon as he found the false floor, Faggino knew that things would need to change. This would no longer be a simple pipe fix. Furthermore, the dig would almost certainly last longer than a week. For all he knew, it could take months! However, now Faggino desperately wanted to know what hid underneath the false floor.
All Faggiano could see beneath the false floor were glints of paving that looked very old. They needed to find out more. So they started digging further down. Not only did Faggino want to know what lie beneath the floor, but they still hadn’t found the problem in the pipe! So, they had no choice but to continue…
10. Trying To Remove It
In order to continue to follow the pipe, Fagginao and his sons needed to remove the false floor. So, they continued. While removing the floor, the Faggiano team had to remove bags and bags of rubble and dirt from the basement. Clearly, they had underestimated the amount of material that stood between them and the pipe.
Still, the Faggiano team stayed determined to reach the problem. They couldn’t wait to discover all the secrets hiding beneath the mysterious building. Soon, the team cracked through the false floor. With this layer out of the way, Faggiano and his sons made a jaw-dropping discovery. As it turns out, Faggiano’s new building was built on top of an ancient treasure!
11. Keep Digging
It took them weeks of working all day and all night, but eventually, they were able to remove the false floor. “We found underground corridors and other rooms, so we kept digging,” Faggiano said. Incredibly, the ancient flooring led down to another floor, which led to a tomb built by the Messapians! The Messapians lived in the region over 2,000 years ago, long before even the Romans came around!
Soon enough, the Faggiano team uncovered a grain-storage chamber the ancient Romans employed. Then, the family continued searching around to see what else they could find. Surprisingly, they also found a basement of what had been a Franciscan convent. However, the amazing discoveries wouldn’t stop there…
12. A Family’s Obsession
As you can imagine, Faggiano spent hours upon hours upon hours exploring the hidden spaces beneath his building. Soon, what started as a small project turned into a family obsession. The more time Faggiano spent under his toilet, the more interesting things he would find!
You see, ancient people didn’t care about labeling certain architecture as historical landmarks. As such, centuries of history remained hidden under a modern building in Lecce. Now, thanks to sewage problems and a leaking pipe, Faggiano and his sons had found something extraordinary beneath their home. At this point, Faggiano decided to have an honest conversation with his family…
13. Let’s Keep It to Ourselves
After finding the hidden rooms, Faggiano believed that the wise thing to do was to keep the discovery to themselves. He thought that neighbors and friends would ask too many questions, or want a piece of the action. Furthermore, Faggiano also made his sons promise that they would not tell their mother, Anne Maria. He didn’t know how she would react to their ancient discovery.
Most of all, Faggiano feared that any problems with authorities or historians would delay the completion of his eatery. While he didn’t want to keep secrets from his wife, Faggiano believed it was the best option at the moment. However, soon everybody started to wonder why they had been down there for so long…
14. Team Work
Indeed, there may have been another reason why Faggiano wanted to keep his discovery from his wife. At this point, he and his sons had started using a rather unconventional way to continue exploring the subterranean world. The new approach? He would often tie a line around Davide, his youngest son. Afterward, he would lower the young man into a newly uncovered layer.
Faggiano really wanted to see what lie in the layers beneath. While it was an extremely dangerous job for a 12-year-old boy, Davide was more than happy to help his father. “I made sure to tell him not to tell his mama,” he said. Soon, the neighbors started to get involved, given the mess and noise…
15. Neighbors Started to Wonder
Soon neighbors stated to have some serious questions. Between the piles of rubbles, the older sons’ extended stays, and the massive amounts of noise coming from the basement, they knew something was up. While they didn’t know the details, the neighbors no longer believed Faggiano was just dealing with a broken pipe.
Later on, they became suspicious that Faggiano and his sons were conducting an illegal dig. So, they decided to do something about it and alerted the authorities. Soon, the family received an unexpected visit from the police who started to ask them all sorts of questions about the activities they were doing beneath the building.
16. They Called The Authorities
As the inspectors made their way to Faggiano’s property, they had some valid reasons to assume what the Faggiano team was doing was against the law. You see, in Italy, it’s illegal for anyone to dig more than 50 cm into the ground because of archeological interest. So, you can dig for plumbing, but not for treasure.
Furthermore, because of the likelihood of finding a unique artifact, citizens are often not allowed to dig underneath their homes or properties without supervisions. As such, the police instructed Faggiano to stop digging the moment they arrived. Faggiano’s initial plan of turning the lower level of the building into a trattoria now had to wait.
17. A Year Lost
While Faggiano and his sons wanted to continue exploring beneath their property, they also knew that they had to follow Italian law. Worse still, they wouldn’t get the answer they wanted right away. In fact, the family had to wait for more than a year for courts to decide if they could continue to dig.
In the end, the authorities allowed them to continue their work. However, there would be one condition: an archeologist would have to oversee their work. Furthermore, the archeologist had the right to correct or stop their work at any time, if they did not follow orders. It seemed fair enough, and Faggiano felt thrilled at the news! He couldn’t wait to begin digging again!
18. Medieval-era Relics
Once Faggiano received the authorization from the authorities, he went back to exploring the ruins beneath his building. He couldn’t wait to continue to unearth ancient treasures! Besides finding rooms and Franciscan convent, the team also uncovered everything from medieval-era relics to ancient vases.
Moreover, Faggiano also found long concealed frescoes and religious bottles used by the Romans. Faggiano and the archeologist could not believe all the different era items turned up from! Furthermore, they were stunned to see the excellent condition in which these objects remained. It felt like a living timeline, right in their hands! And the discoveries just kept coming…
19. All Thanks To A Broken Pipe
Giovanny Giangreco, a heritage official, helped the Faggiano team and supervised the dig at the time. in an interview, Giangreco said, “the Faggiano house has layers that are representative of almost all of the city’s history.” Now, all thanks to one broken pipe, Faggiano had made one of the most significant discoveries in Italian history.
Faggiano and his family did more than all the hard work. They also paid for the entire dig! As such, Faggiano became completely obsessed with the excavation. It was their baby! Furthermore, Faggiano started doing quite a bit of research into the ruins beneath his home and the eras they came from.
20. Leaving Their Lives Behind
While the head of the family became immersed in his archeological dig, not everybody felt the same way. Marco and Andrea, his oldest sons, believed the project had started interrupting their normal lives. What’s more, their father told them that it would only last a week or two, tops. However, a year and a half later, they were still digging every day.
“We were kind of forced to do it. I was going to university, but then I would go home and excavate. Marco [came home] as well,” Andrea said later. Soon, they began to feel that they should all move on and leave the dig behind them.
21. Getting Tired
While Faggiano felt excited because of his discoveries, he still needed to find the main goal: the broken pipe. Furthermore, at some point, the discoveries would end. So, Faggiano started to think about what to do with his ancient treasure. Maybe, he could start a different business, why not?
Eventually, Faggiano grew tired of all the work before him. After all, Faggiano was just trying to fix a plumbing system. What’s more, Faggiano still wanted to open his dream restaurant! It all became too overwhelming for Faggiano to handle. “I was still digging to find my pipe. Every day we would find new artifacts,” Faggiano recalled. After a while, it became routine.
22. Moving On
After many years of hard labor, Marco and Andrea decided to move on with their lives. Both of them had new projects in mind. Andrea decided to relocate to London while Marco continued to study. Meanwhile, Faggiano was planning on using the rest of his property to earn some income while he continued his task.
Soon, Faggiano started to rent the upper floors of the building. Archeological digs are not cheap, and neither is setting up a restaurant. Thankfully, Faggiano brought in some money through other properties. However, regardless of the cost, Faggiano started to lose interest in the ancient treasure, just like his sons. After all this time, the project began taking its toll on him.
23. Losing Steam With The Project
Needlessly to say, Faggiano found himself losing steam with the project. “At one point, I couldn’t take it anymore,” Faggiano remembered. “I bought cinder blocks and was going to cover it up and pretend it had never happened. I don’t wish it on anyone.” While he felt desperate to move on to a normal life, city officials pushed him to continue excavating.
Furthermore, Faggiano’s architect explained to him that he would be better off without sludge laying underneath the future restaurant bathroom. However, Faggiano was thinking about putting his eatery dream on hold, again. After all, he had to do something with this ancient treasure!
24. Museum Faggiano
In the end, Faggiano found himself another business. Instead of opening an eatery, Faggiano founded the Museum Faggiano. It is an independent archive displaying Faggiano’s findings. Nowadays, the Museum Faggiano has become one of the places for tourist to visit in Italy. In fact, it is one of Lecce’s top-rated museums and the city’s only independent one!
While opening a museum wasn’t exactly his original plan, Faggiano is happy with the outcome. Ultimately, he feels incredibly lucky to have found an ancient treasure hidden beneath your building. It’s a dream, like something out of an adventure film! Now, eleven years later, the museum remains open for anyone who would like to learn a little bit more about Lecce’s past.
Let’s take a little tour of the museum…
25. A Look Inside The Museum
The museum takes visitors through more than 2,000 years of history. After tons of research, Faggiano managed to track down the entire history of the building and the plot of the land. The tour starts at the beginning: in the 5th B.C. when the Messapians lived on the land. Later, in the Templar times (12th century) construction on the building began. The Templars possibly even used the building in some capacity, as rare Templar symbols were found etched in the rooftop tower of the building. A secret Templar home might also explain the escape routes Faggiano found in the catacombs.
After Templar times, the building switched hands for the first, but not the last time. With its new owners, the building’s tale continued to grow…
26. 5000 Archaeological Finds
Sometime around 1300, the building became a convent for the order of Franciscan Nuns of Saint Clare. This explains many of the strange finds that Faggiano discovered like the underground chapel and the many “light” tombs (meaning uncovered) that he found in the catacombs. They also found a granary and cisterns dating back to the same time period.
Of course, these are just a fraction of the “more than 5000 archaeological finds” Faggiano discovered. These artifacts and the layers of the basement, tell the building and city’s history, making it a must-see for any tourist in Lecce. Faggiano even made small scenes, like the one above, using artifacts he found in the basement, in an attempt to recreate what the building may have looked like centuries ago. What vistors love most is how the museum gives them a glimpse into the entire history of Lecce…
27. The Messapians
Long before even Roman times, the Messapians were an ancient tribe who inhabited the Salento region and also founded Lecce. Since then, many generations have passed through the city. Today, the city boasts over 2,000 years of ruins. “Lecce was once a critical crossroads in the Mediterranean, coveted by invaders from Greeks to Romans to Normans to Lombards,” the New York Times explained.
Despite the various people who have held the city of Lecce, or perhaps because of, its architecture flourished. In fact, by the mid-17th century, Baroque-style structures began appearing throughout the city, before the style became truly popular. It was because of these ornament sights that the city earned the title of “the Florence of the south.”
28. A Safer Experience
However, the museum is more than just filled with incredible stories and artifacts. Faggiano also made sure his museum was state of the art. So, the first he did was install glass floors throughout the building’s basement levels. This way, visitors could look down through the ground and see the layers of history, like a 3D timeline. To enter the layers, Faggiano also installed a spiral staircase that leads into the basement and the main part of the museum — no more sending people down on ropes! Maybe X fond out about little Davide’s adventures!
The tour ends in the archive, where museum-goers can take a look at all the ancient treasure Faggiano found. They can also ask the museum’s docent, Rosa Anna Romano, any questions they have. Romano and Faggiano have the most interesting connection…
29. The Grotto of Cervi
As it turns out, Romano’s husband had a very similar story to Faggiano’s. A few years prior, while sailing along the coast not far from Lecce, Romano’s noticed some large, odd holes in the sea cliffs. Surprisingly, those holes led him and archeologists to discover the Grotto of Cervi! There, they found cave houses and paintings dating back over 12,000 years. Yes, you read that right!
Romano’s husband made his incredible discovery back in 1970. Just like Faggiano, before he stumbled into the grotto, no one knew what lie just beneath the surface. Since then, the Romanos have been studying Roman and pre-Roman Italian history, making her the best choice for Museo Faggiano!
30. Connecting the Stories
There were many similar details between Faggiano and Romano’s husband stories. For one, they both found unexpected ancient treasure. However, that wasn’t the only fact connecting these two stories. As he put it, “We were brought together by sewage systems.” Can you believe it?
Speaking of sewage systems, Faggiano was eventually able to locate the pipe in question! In the end, he was able to solve his issue. Now, everything seemed to be in place for him to continue enjoying his ancient treasure. Meanwhile, he will be able to use his toilet any time he wants! However, this time, he won’t be scared! After all, he accomplished his primary goal.
31. Out of the Ordinary
Mario Di Marco, Lecce’s historian, commented, “each population [that lived here] came and left a trace.” Later a city council member added, “Whenever you dig a hole, centuries of history come out.” Well, it certainly was Faggiano’s case! Although it took him years to locate the pipe in question, Faggiano was incredibly happy to have stumbled upon this amazing ancient treasure. Now, as a museum, generations of history buffs will enjoy his finds forever.
However, if you’re thinking this was just once in a lifetime find, think again. It turns out, that Faggiano’s story isn’t out of the ordinary in Italy. You see, Solento’s incredible, rich history has made these events relatively normal for archaeologists and urban planners…
32. Italy’s History
Italy’s human history goes back some 40,000 years. As such, the country is host to an incredible, extensive collection of ruins from ancient eras. Most famously, Italians established Rome, the capital of Italy, in 753 B.C. Today, no trip to the famous “Eternal City” is complete without paying a visit to its incredible, still-standing ruins, like the Colosseum. After all, tourists want to see the impressive creations that have stood the test of time.
Of course, Rome isn’t the only Italian city where these incredible architectural remnants still stand. There are many, many more all over Italy. In fact, Italy contains more ancient artifacts and ruins than most other countries…
33. World Heritage Sites
Rome is just one of Italy’s many incredible cities. There’s the famous Pompeii, a snapshot of Roman life, frozen in time thanks to the ash of Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in A.D. 79. There’s also the city of Verona, one of the only cities in the world to feature over 2,000 years of uninterrupted development. Naples, Florence, the list of incredibly historic Italian cities goes on and on.
These cities also have more in common than just their home country. Because of their historical significance, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have declared all these places World Heritage Sites. According to UNESCO, a world heritage site is one that has “cultural, historical, [or] scientific” significance. The title also comes with internationally guaranteed protections. Today, Italy features 54 World Heritage Sites, more than any other country in the world!
No comments: