Matera cave churches

Carved into the walls of the Gravina gorge facing the Sassi of Matera, several hundred rock-cut churches contain surviving Byzantine-era fresco cycles depicting saints and narrative scenes in a direct provincial style dating from the 9th to 14th centuries. The most accessible concentration is at the Parco della Murgia Materana, where churches including Santa Maria de Idris and the Cripta del Peccato Originale can be reached on foot. The cave church of the Cripta del Peccato Originale, the Sistine Chapel of rupestrian art, holds a complete program of early medieval frescoes considered exceptional in quality.