Rupestrian churches in Matera

The first rupestrian churches date back to the High Middle Ages, when the monasticism become popular in the catholic community of that age. These places of worship are dig into the tuff rock and they are a distinctive tract of all Matera’s territory: crypt, hermitage, basilicas and monastery are scattered all around the urban fabric of the Sassi, throughout the precipices or on the Murgia plateau. The churches dig into the rock with their architectural virtuosity and their frescos are exceptional works of art and examples of negative architecture, at which the local residents were perfectly accustomed seeing that even the houses were built in the same way. In a heterogeneous and harmonic group, in which Orthodox churches are placed side by side with Catholic churches, these buildings testify the development and the cultural level reached by these communities. Santa Lucia e Agata delle Malve, Santa Maria de Idris and Santa Barbara are just some of the about 150 rupestrian churches built in all Matera’s territory.