The rose window
A sixteen-spoked window in a plain stone front.
Sailko โ CC BY 3.0 ยท Berthold Werner โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Holger Uwe Schmitt โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Holger Uwe Schmitt โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**A cathedral on the city's highest point between the two quarters, austere outside and overwhelming gold within** โ on the rock spine between Sasso Caveoso and Barisano. Built in the **13th century** in the Apulian Romanesque manner: **a plain stone front** with a sixteen-spoked rose window, **and a 52-metre campanile** visible from the whole ravine. โ **The contrast inside is startling**: **bare, austere stone without**, โ **and a wholly gilded Baroque interior** โ redecorated in the 18th century. โ **It holds**: a 13th-century **Byzantine fresco of the Virgin**, a carved **stone nativity** of 1534, and **inlaid wooden choir stalls**. โ **Its position is the best thing about it**: **from its square you see the Sassi and the ravine**.
A sixteen-spoked window in a plain stone front.
A nativity carved in stone, dated 1534.
An open view over Sasso Barisano and the ravine.
Piazza Duomo, 75100 Matera, Italy
**Three different positions giving three entirely different pictures โ and night changes all of them.** โ **(1) From inside the city โ Piazza Duomo**: **on the highest point between the two quarters** โ โ **you see Sasso Barisano falling away below you**, **and the ravine**; **free and relatively easy**, and the nearest. โ **(2) From inside the city โ the Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio** and the terraces on Via Madonna delle Virtรน: โ **you see Sasso Caveoso and the rock churches**; **level and accessible**, **and the best place for the classic daytime photograph**. โ **(3) โ The most important โ the Belvedere di Murgia Timone**: **on the far side of the ravine entirely** โ โ **requiring a car (about 15โ20 minutes round) or a hard walk across the gorge and a suspension bridge**; โ **and from it you see the whole Sassi as one wall of a city** โ **the picture you have seen**, โ **and nothing substitutes for it**. โ **โ And night changes everything**: **the Sassi is fully lit in yellow light**, **and the view from Murgia Timone at night is the best thing in Matera** โ โ **but the road is dark and unlit**, **so take a torch and do not go alone**.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet โ be the first.