On the hillside below La Rocca, a short distance from the old town, stands a small whitewashed farmhouse with an outsized reputation. This is the Abbey of Thelema, founded in 1920 by the English occultist Aleister Crowley as a spiritual commune. Crowley, his companion Leah Hirsig, and a changing cast of disciples lived here for three years, conducting rituals and painting the interior walls with elaborate occult imagery.
Today the building is privately owned and usually closed to visitors, but it can be viewed from the outside and is worth the short detour if you know the story. The site inspired Moonchild, Crowley's own novel, and has attracted the curiosity of everyone from Jimmy Page to Kenneth Anger, who filmed there in the 1950s. The murals, partially restored, are occasionally accessible during cultural events. Its notoriety in Cefalù is a quiet irony — the town embraces the connection less enthusiastically than it embraces its Cinema Paradiso association.