Gravina di Puglia, vintage photograph (CC BY-SA 3.0, https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3694887)
This town of High Murgia in its name already reveals the particular characteristics of its landscape shape. The whole town rises on a deep ravine structured around several levels alternating rock churches, houses, stables, and sheds. Among the various rock churches, the Basilica di San Michele delle grotte is worth a visit: an area divided into five naves by large pillars. On the rocky walls, it is still possible to see the remains of 12th and 13th-century frescoes. In one of the spaces connected to the church it is possible to visit a charnel house, macabre storage of human remains, which a strong popular tradition considers as the bones of Gravina citizens, brutally murdered during one of the 10th-century Saracen raids.
In Gravina the visitors can admire the precise reconstruction of San Vito crypt and its beautiful frescoes, including a Christ Pantokrator enthroned and a Virgin Enthroned, within the little known but rich Museum Pomarici-Santomasi. The museum is housed in the 17th-century Pomarici Santomasi Foundation building, whose two floors also host the archaeological finds from Botromagno area, the Picture Gallery, the Library, the Historical Archive, and the reading rooms.
Contacts
Telephone: +39 080.325.10.21
Fax: +39 080.325.10.21
E-Mail: info@fondazionesantomasi.it
Via Museo n. 20 – 70024 Gravina in Puglia (Ba) – Italy
OPENING TIMES
Tuesday/Sunday: 9 a.m. -1 p.m. | 4 p.m.- 8 p.m.
Closed on Monday
