CHIESA SAN GIOVANNI BATTISTA

Apart from the rock churches, this religious building dedicated to St. John the Baptist is perhaps the most suggestive in the city. It is one of the three churches of Matera built in the Apulian Romanesque style in 1220 and it suffered the same fate as the Cathedral and the church of San Domenico, because it was redesigned in the Baroque style in the 17th and 18th centuries. Afterwards, it was cleaned of its baroque finishing touches and recovered its typical medieval architecture, where stone dominates, and its original atmosphere that invites you to meditate. The facade and the left side were incorporated into neighboring buildings. The entrance is through a magnificent portal richly carved, designed by the master stonemasons Michele del Giudice and Marco di Lauria. It opens in the center of the right flank and is surmounted by a niche containing a polychrome stone statue of St. John the Baptist and unusual zoomorphic sculptures. The flat chevet is also decorated with animal figures.

The interior, with three naves separated by pillars, has beautiful ribbed vaults. In the chapel of the Santi Medici you can see an interesting painting of the Vergine in gloria con i santi Antonio abate, Cosma e Damiano, Biagio e Vincenzo, painted by Vito Antonio Conversi in 1727. There is also a Pietà in polychrome wood (1888), a very expressive work by the Matera-born sculptor Pasquale Calabrese, and an Annunciation by Altobello Persio on the cornice.