Chiese rupestri di Mottola

At a glance

Between the 11th and the 14th century, small monastic communities dug their churches directly into the soft rock of the ravines south-east of Mottola, in the province of Taranto. The best known, San Nicola, has been called the “Sistine Chapel of rupestrian civilisation in southern Italy”: its walls hold frescoes spanning some four centuries, from a rare three-cross symbolic crucifixion of the iconoclastic age (9th century) to the wise and foolish virgins of the 13th–14th, with saints of both the Byzantine and the Latin tradition — among them a Pantocrator in Deesis, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Nicholas, Saint George and Saint Lucy.

Sant’Angelo, in the medieval village of Casalrotto, is described as unique in Italy among rock churches for being carved on two superimposed levels, the lower one used for burials. Santa Margherita shows the strong Eastern, Byzantine imprint of its painters, while San Gregorio is remarkable for its cross-shaped rock pillars and round arches.