CHIESA SAN PIETRO BARISANO

The largest rock church in the sassi of Matera, and one of those that we recommend you visit first. As you will have understood, it takes its name from the district (Sasso Barisano) in which it is located. The first building, which dates back to the year 1000, was called chiesa di San Pietro in Veteribus. However, the most important interventions date back to the XVIII century, when the bell tower and the façade were built. The three-nave interior was also restored and the underground spaces were dug for a funerary rite called "scolatura": the bodies of the priests, dressed in their liturgical vestments, were placed in a sitting position on seats dug into the rock inside niches until they were completely decomposed. The bones were then cleaned and placed in ossuaries. This practice spread throughout southern Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries. A visit to the church allows one to go underground, to pass through a small maze of narrow galleries and to see the niches that housed the bodies of the deceased. On the upper level there are some remains of frescoes, notably in the side chapel of the right nave, dug out in the 15th and 16th centuries and decorated with several holy figures. The church also housed altar paintings and sculptures, which were stolen or vandalized when the sassi were abandoned in the 1960s and 1970s.