The phenomenon of living in caves has constituted an uninterrupted tradition in Puglia, due to the particular geomorphological characteristics of the area, as well as the presence of water and some important communication routes, such as the Appian Way. The local rock, soft and porous, has been excavated and shaped for centuries, and caves and tunnels have been shaped for the needs of daily life, demonstrating man's great ability to adapt to the environment.
In Puglia, many rupestrian settlements are located along the slopes of "lamas" and ravines where, thanks to the easy workability of calcarenite, it has been possible to create an ideal habitat for human life, in balance with nature. Natural caves, frequented since the Paleolithic and then abandoned in the classical age, returned to be populated starting from the early Middle Ages by religious communities of Italian-Greek and Benedictine monks, as well as by groups of farmers and shepherds. Even the succession of barbarian invasions and the Lombard and Arab occupation pushed the inhabitants to prefer the rock settlement, which was difficult to identify among the natural conformation of the rocks. The medieval settlements took the form of real rural agglomerations. It is the exaltation of "building backwards", with different environments on multiple levels, groups of caves connected by an intricate series of streets and ladders dug into the rock, used as homes accompanied by tool sheds, warehouses for foodstuffs, cisterns and pits wheat farms, stables, oil mills, millstones, cellars, ovens, and several churches.
The dwellings of the rupestrian villages were generally very simple and not very comfortable, both due to the poverty of the inhabitants, who were mostly farmers, artisans and monks, and due to the very nature of the dwellings, dug into the tuff with rudimentary means. However, the organization of the inhabited areas reveals great construction skill, an ability to exploit space and an adaptation to the most difficult conditions. The cave houses could be composed of one or more rooms, whose height was between 2.05 and 2.30 metres, sometimes arranged on one or more levels, and have various elements chiselled and modeled directly in the rock, such as seats , niches and shelves for storing vases and everyday objects, wall compartments for storing food, bed corner.
In some homes the walls and ceilings had holes used for bed frames, for fitting wooden surfaces useful for seasoning food, for suspending lanterns and the cradle of newborns. Often the house was also equipped with a cistern for collecting water and shelters for animals. The rectangular entrance was protected by incisions to channel rainwater laterally. The entrances, which often constituted the only source of light and ventilation in the house, also had notches and holes for the insertion of a wooden door.
The heart of the rock village was the church which, in the gravina settlement, was located at the top of the plateau and was also dug into the rock according to patterns and characteristics that took up those of the "built" churches, adapting them to the underground environment.
The rupestrian churches were a meeting point between East and West, between the Catholic liturgy and the Greek Orthodox cult, which integrated into a single mentality and religious expression. The architecture of the rupestrian church, as for the houses, proceeded by emptying the rocky bank, creating an initial plan, usually quadrangular, expanded following the morphology of the rock. After excavating the initial hall, other rooms were excavated, leaving a stone wall between one space and another, which was then sculpted to create architectural elements similar to those of built churches, such as pillars, arches, blind arches. Fake entablatures and decorations imitating fake domes were instead carved into the ceilings. The apse, or more apses, and niches were added to this complex plan consisting of several quadrangular rooms. Along the perimeter of the hall, in the same tuff bench, a seat was created, intended for the faithful, in the part of the church called naos, separated from the part reserved for the clergy, called bema, by the iconostasis. The main altar of the crypt was located in the sacred part, in a central position or against the wall of the apse.
Often built in isolated places, in intimate contact with nature, sanctuaries are an expression of the link between environment and art, between nature and man. Faith, humanity and traditions have their roots in rock sanctuaries.
The reasons for the choice to use a rock environment as a sanctuary are to be found in that value of sacredness that the cave, a place consecrated to initiatory rites, to the perennial conflict between light and darkness, between good and evil, has acquired since the archaic era.
The cave sanctuary represents a direct reference to the underground world, which allows the devotee to feel the presence of the afterlife more immediately. For many civilizations the cave is the birthplace of divinities, associated with the maternal womb, therefore an appropriate place to be used as a sanctuary. The importance attributed to these places seems to have had a significant weight in the process of Christianization of rock sites which affected various areas of the Mediterranean basin and above all central-southern Italy starting from the first centuries of the early Middle Ages. At the origin of the foundation of these spiritual places there are often apparitions, miracles, discoveries of images, miraculous transports, events involving children, shepherds and farmers.
The cave is also the place where the Christian hermits of the Middle Ages used to retreat from the world, in absolute isolation, for a period of contemplation or permanently. Once the hermit's existence ended, the rock cavity remained a sacred space that preserved the memory of an extraordinary experience of sanctity. This is the case of the hermitages of Calomini and San Viviano in Tuscany or, in Puglia, of the hermitages of Pulsano or the hermitage of San Biagio in Ostuni, hidden among the ravines of the Murge. In Puglia there are numerous cave sanctuaries that still continue to speak to the hearts of the faithful, places that refer to Jesus Christ, the Virgin or great Saints, destinations of rites and pilgrimages.
For the Christians of the Middle Ages, the pilgrimage to the great sacred places, linked to a supernatural presence or consecrated to the cult of the bodies of saints, was an important stage in life, a path of redemption and of getting closer to God, a journey of the heart, of the mind and of the spirit.
Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostela were the most famous medieval sanctuaries and the destinations of the most common pilgrimages in the 11th century. From the time of the Lombard conquest, from the 6th to the 13th century, the main communication routes along Italy towards Jerusalem crossed the ancient Roman road axes of Central-Southern Italy, to reach the ports that led from Puglia to the Holy Land, a place where Jesus Christ was born, lived, died and resurrected. Pilgrims coming from all over Europe did not fail, before embarking for the East, to climb to the "Mount of the Angel" along the so-called Via Sacra Longobardorum, the ancient path which, branching off from the Via Appia Traiana, which connected Rome to Brindisi , allowed you to reach the Grotta di San Michele in Monte Sant'Angelo, at the height of the Gargano. The "Via dell'Angelo", corresponding to a Southern Via Francigena, began in Puglia, after crossing the San Severo Valley, and insinuated itself between the Gargano promontory and the Tavoliere plain, allowing, through more or less impervious paths , to reach the Michaelic Sanctuary.
Starting from the end of the 5th century, the extraordinary Gargano sanctuary became the most important place of Michaelic worship in the West, the destination of numerous pilgrimages by individual believers or more or less numerous groups, attracted to the sacred mountain by the fame of the extraordinary events happened there. In this place, pilgrims were given a special blessing, their sins were forgiven, even the most serious, and the doors of Paradise were opened. Crosses, runic inscriptions, graffiti of hands and feet, engraved on the ancient stones of the sanctuary, still remind us today of the intensity of this influx of faithful of every nationality.
During the period of the Crusades, the Sanctuary also became an obligatory stop for the knights who, before going to the Holy Land to free it from Muslim occupation, made sure to ask for the intercession of the leader of the celestial militias and perhaps returned to thank him at the end of their adventure . After the establishment of the Gargano sanctuary, the cult of the Archangel Michael, weigher of souls and companion of the dead, victor over the forces of Evil, united all of Europe transversally, and the Gargano became a center of irradiation of the cult even in very distant regions. distant.
Throughout Puglia there are numerous cave sanctuaries dedicated to San Michele, places that are characterized by common elements such as the presence of spring water that exudes from the walls, of woods, of the underground path, of harsh and wild scenarios, predisposed to contact with the divine.
The rock places of worship constitute a significant part of the historical-artistic riches of Puglia. There are hundreds of rupestrian churches scattered throughout the territory, dug along the steep walls of the ravines, in inaccessible places, sometimes hidden among the dense vegetation, decorated with thousands of spectacular frescoes, which testify to the religiosity of the inhabitants of the villages dug into the rock and they illuminate the darkness of the caves through the spark of art, maintaining the link with Byzantine art and oriental culture.
The wall paintings date back to the centuries between the 9th and 15th centuries, with greater frequency in the 12th-14th centuries. They were executed on site by generally anonymous artists, who neither signed nor dated their works. From these depictions emerge the various aspects of the daily life of medieval rural communities, that is, linguistic aspects, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin, religious beliefs, the material culture of the society of the time, with clothes, goldsmithery, trades, craftsmanship.
The pictorial cycles frescoed inside the rock churches are mostly iconic, that is, they represent individual figures of male and female saints, believed to be mediators between heaven and earth, capable of remedying the problems and miseries of everyday life. The paintings are due to devotional commissions, that is, to individual believers who had the saint to whom they were linked for the most varied reasons represented, without worrying about the fact that the same saint had already been depicted in the same church. What fascinates most about the frescoes, in addition to the high artistic quality, is the solemnity of the figures and above all their sumptuous clothing, with beautiful colors and full of ornamental objects.
The most widespread images are those depicting the Virgin Odegitria, the Déesis, Christ Pantocrator. Among the Saints, the most represented one is undoubtedly Saint Nicholas of Myra, followed by the Holy Helpers and the Holy Knights, such as George, Eustace, Theodore, the virgins such as Saint Lucia and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the great Patriarchs such as Saint Basil, the Hermit Saints such as Onofrius, Paul, Anthony the Abbot, and the Apostles, especially Peter. The image of the Archangel Michael is also frequent, commonly reproduced in armor with the sword or spear with which he defeats the devil, in the guise of a dragon.
Among the ravines flowing toward the Gulf of Taranto, Laterza is the most spectacular. Undoubtedly the Gravina di Laterza is one of the largest canyons in Europe and it is the most impressive expression of a particular territory known as "Gravine dell'Arco Jonico" (Ravines of the Jonic Arch), which extends from Gravina in Puglia to Grottaglie. Dozens are the ravines arranged in a fan shape around the Gulf of Taranto, each of them different in size and morphology.
A rupestrian civilization has developed around and within them over millennia of history, leaving evident traces in culture, history, art and, above all, in a life conception in close contact with nature. The gravina of Laterza has an original meandering course that develops for 12 km in length and about 400 meters in width, between rock walls worn by erosion and smooth whitish limestone walls even more than 200 meters high, scattered with innumerable cavities and ledges suspended in the void.
From a naturalistic point of view, the ravine is similar to an "island" where several plant and animal species of great interest have remained isolated from the original environmental context which, especially for anthropic reasons, has changed radically in recent centuries. Thanks to the harshness of the places, the woods of "fragno" (Quercus trojana) present in Italy only in Low Murgia and less frequently in the Alta Murgia, managed to survive. The endemic campanula versicolor, with beautiful pale purple flowers, blooms from June to October and covers the walls of the ravine in patches. The arborescent euphorbia, the rock rose, the terebinth, the mastic and the juniper climb on the less steep and always green walls thanks to the presence of the holm oak. In spring along the paths of the ravine it is possible to admire colorful blooming orchids.
In the heart of the ravine there is the rupestrian habitat of Laterza, where human attendance is attested by the numerous archaeological finds.
The rupestrian habitat contains churches and other environments dug into the rock and tuff, for a total of about 30 units still partially unexplored.
From the gravina rock to the ceramic, Laterza boasts the peculiar production of white majolica, polished and decorated mainly with the colors of blue and yellow, a true signature of the Laertine potters who distinguishes the precious objects at any latitude.
The historic center of the village develops among mighty walls, the depth of the ravine and the castle thus emphasizing the strong medieval soul that also emerges from the succession of whitewashed houses along paths, stairways and characteristic squares.
Overlooking the deep ravine of the ravine, the Marquisal Palace dominates and characterizes the landscape of Laterza. The Marquisal Palace of Laterza was built in 1548, on the ruins of the ancient 14th century castle. A basement about two meters deep of the original fortified complex still survives today and it is linked to the church of Vittoria.
It was in the 16th century that the Azzia feudal lords decided to completely rebuild the fortress, making if into a more dignified, hospitable and safe noble residence, still maintaining some parts of the previous structure. The palace, as well as in the case of the previous castle, needed significant defensive measures on the north side, while, on the south side, the cliffs of the ravine provided a natural and impenetrable defense for the entire town. Instead, it was at the northern side where a moat, a drawbridge, crenellated walls and loopholes existed once. The structure shows the typical forms of the late Renaissance mansion. Trapezoidal in plan, it has numerous rooms including stables, warehouses, taverns and other services necessary for carrying out activities related to the properties of the fiefdom. On the noble floor, on the right side of the building, there were the aristocratic apartments with two rows of parallel rooms.
The rupestrian churches mainly insist on the various slightly incised karstic valleys that converge on via Concerie, and today have become streets running close to the deep ravine. These include the rupestrian church of San Giorgio, the crypt of the Spanish winery and the rupestrian church of Christ the Judge.
A surprising pictorial cycle and impressive sculptural decorations adorn this beautiful rupestrian church of Laterza. In the San Pietro district, in Laterza, in the center of the rupestriany area between the Sanctuary of Mater Domini and the ravine, the Spanish winery was founded in 1664 by Don Francesco Perez Navarrete, a Spanish nobleman who settled in Puglia. The winery supposedly was used by the Marquis of Laterza for gallant meetings and Masonic-type gatherings but it is likely to have been used in more remote times as a sacred environment, an ambiguity that is reflected in the fascinating pictorial decorations. Characterized by three rooms, closed by an apse, the cave church preserves the splendid paintings, such as the Nativity and the Expulsion of the Progenitors, in the first room, followed by a parade of ladies and knights in costume and the parody of a parade of priests in liturgical dress
In the homonymous district, hidden by a rural building, there is the rupestrian church of San Giorgio, until a few years ago accessible only through a trapdoor, by passing through an oil mill, now finally reopened and can be visited from its original entrance. The crypt consists of a single rectangular hall with a humpback ceiling and apsidal basin on the bottom, while two seats run longitudinally to the two side walls. Traces of the ancient Byzantine frescoes peek out from the walls, like San Giorgio in medieval clothes and a beautiful diptych depicting the Madonna and Child and a scene from the life of the titular saint.
An open door on the side of a rupestriany wall leads to a hidden garden, which leads to the ancient rupestrian church dedicated to Christ the Judge, a witness of the religious past of Laterza, beautifully frescoed. With two naves, the interior has a rectangular plan, marked by a central pillar and two large arches, with a single frescoed apse, with the representation of a fourteenth-century Deesis, with Christ Pantocrator, the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist.
Throughout the Murgia area, almost all towns can boast excellent bread and Laterza is one of them. Not only Altamura and Matera then! The well-known Laterza bread is also produced here, obtained with re-milled durum wheat flour. It is one of the most loved bakery products in Puglia and the town has fully become one of the Cities of Bread in Italy.
