TOUR ITINERARIES
Mystery And Charme of Rupestrian Crypts
3

GRAVINA DI PUGLIA

This itinerary takes you to visit some rupestrian crypts that are almost on the border between Puglia and Basilicata. The route starts from Gravina di Puglia, an artistic town in the province of Bari. It was built on a rock and its name comes from this.The origins of the town can be traced back to the Bronze Age. On the Petramagna hill there was a peucetian village that today is called Botromagno. This one, Silvium, became a stop on the Via Appia. It was founded in the VII cent. b.C. by the Peucetians and then they built a new town near the “gully” area.

Pictures: Paolo Digiuseppe

The old town centre is very peculiar, thanks to its tortuous lanes in the Medieval quarter, that is on both sides of the gully. The different Baroque buildings are also peculiar. Among them, the most important ones are Orsini Palace and Pellicciari Palace. The cathedral is very charming, too. Near Gravina di Puglia, other important sites are Botromagno archaeologic site and, in the north, over a hill, the remainings of Federico II castle. On one side of the gully, there are many churches and rupestrian crypts, that represent the destination of this itinerary. The most important ones are: Santa Maria degli Angeli church and The Holy Father crypt.

ALTAMURA

About 12 km from Gravina, on the highway num. 96, our itinerary takes you to Altamura, a flourishing town 45 km away from Bari, on a high hill of the Mugia area, 468 mt of height. Even if here the land has not so much vegetation, there are many masserie (like the famous fortified masseria Jesce), whose economy is mainly based on the cultivation of cereals and on cattle- breeding. Some signs of human settlement in Altamura date back to pre-historic times, but it was the Peucetian population that founded the town and surrounded it with walls.

Anyway, the actual urban aspect of Altamura dates back to the XII cent., when Federico II of Svevia founded the town again. If you walk along Corso Federico II di Svevia, in the old town centre, you can see its beautiful architecture, that mirrors the story of the place. A peculiar element of Altamura are the “Claustri” (cloisters), that are an architectonic proof of the existence of different religious communities. They have a narrow lane and a court, on which some houses made of stone and tuff face. The real gem of the old town centre, however, are its churches and its cathedral, built by Federico II.
Near the town, about 6 km away, you can also visit a famous site called “Altamura Pulo”, one of the biggest dolinas of Italy. Inside its steep walls there are charming natural caves from prehistoric times, about 90 mt deep. In this place, full of ravines and hollows, there are some rupestrian crypts, our itinerary destination.The most important one is definitely the crypt in Masseria Jesce, with Latin frescoes and inscriptions from the XIV century.

MATERA

Going beyond the borders of Puglia, along the highway num. 171 first and the along num. 96, for a total of 21 km, we get to Matera, the city of the “Sassi” (Rocks).

 This city developed along a deep and wide gully, where there are two basins of “Sassi”, with houses and caves that take you go down through rocky steps till the edge of the fracture.

 This is a very suggestive scenery that makes Matera a unique city all over the world.

Here, hidden in the rocks, there are many rupestrian churches, divided in: hermitages; anacorets cells whose peculiarity was the reduced hypogean room; some Lauriothic churches, surrounded by many cavities where the speleothians isolate themselves after the liturgy; some cenobite churches , enclosed in hermitages where they lived like in a community; shrines; chapels and hamlets.

Laterza old town centre has a stately castle from the XIV century and some ancient churches, the most important of which is Madonna della Grande Abbey. In the territory aroud there also are many rupestrian crypts, among which you should visit Maria Santissima Mater Domini, that is in the sanctuary with that name, at the bottom of the gully.

This is a very ancient town of Puglia, on the border with Basilicata, and it is the last stop of our itinerary. The most ancient period, that proves the existence of a human settlement in this territory, dates back to the Iron Age, around about half of the VIII cent. b.C. and it was a hamlet of huts.

 It was on the terrace that is now the Piantata-Pozzillo county. Here, they found some stratified remainings of the bottom of some huts under the base of a structure of the V cent. b.C.

The archaeologic and topographic research verified that, in the VI cent. b.C., in this territory there were two human settlements very closed to each other: Follerato fortified site and another one that is actually the town of Ginosa, and that probably was also fortified.Ginosa human settlemet depended on the rupestrian culture and dates back from the VI cent. b.C. until the Middle Ages, and even later. Like many other towns in Puglia, in the Late Middle Age, in Ginosa there were Basilian monks settlements. The caves also prove the transit of Byzantine monks, until the XVI century. There are many important crypts,too. They were dug in a tuff rock and you can still see them on the walls of the gully. Great historic importance is also given to the XVI cent. castle and to the Romanic cathedral.

Texts: Italiainrete - Pictures: Database and web

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