CATTEDRALE DI MATERA
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A beautiful cathedral with impressive statues and frescoes on top of the Civita.
Access via MATA - Museo Diocesano, Via Riscatto. Located on the summit of the Civita, Matera Cathedral is dedicated to the Madonna della Bruna, patron saint of the city along with Sant'Eustachio. Its beautiful Apulian Romanesque façade, adorned with a rose window, overlooks the Sasso Barisano; from the belvedere in front of the building, a magnificent view opens up. The cathedral was built between 1230 and 1270. The building is 54 m long, and its campanile 52 m high. On the right-hand side are two elaborate portals, including the "dei Leoni", flanked by stylophoric lions. The interior is a Latin cross with three naves, ten columns with original historiated capitals and a richly decorated ceiling. Heavy intervention in the 16th, 17th and, above all, 18th centuries gave the building its Baroque appearance. To the right of the main entrance, a fresco of the Giudizio universale (Last Judgement), attributed to Rinaldo da Taranto (13th century), has been discovered, the only vestige of the pictorial decoration that adorned the cathedral. In the left transept, excavations have revealed the presence of painted funerary chapels below current ground level. They belonged to a cemetery that lined the north side of the cathedral and disappeared in the 16th century when the building was enlarged. Also worth seeing: a painted limestone crib by Altobello Persio (1534). The diocesan museum's collection of altarpieces, detached frescoes and religious goldsmith's and silversmith's work is also worth a visit.
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Ne pas rater la vue depuis la piazza Duomo.