Thursday March 26th, 2020
If you are looking for a suggestive experience that combines history, art, nature and tradition, then let yourself be conquered by the wild and suggestive Basilicata.
In this region, full of charm and always chosen from a particular and niche tourism, away from crowded circuits, there are hidden places, all to be discovered.
In the barren and iridescent landscape of the Murgia of Matera, the rocky plateaus ,scenting of macchia mediterranea spontaneous herbs, such as myrtle, broom, dog rose and rosemary, guard the traces of human presence, cenobies, hermitages and rock churches linked to ancient monastic communities.
The Crypt of original sin: the Sistine Chapel of rupestrian art.
A few kilometers from Matera, along the Appia Antica, there is the most ancient and evocative testimony of the rock art of Southern Italy. It is the Crypt of the Original Sin, an ancient rupestrian church dating back to the 9th century, built in the rock by Benedictine monks.
It is one of the most fascinating jewels of rupestrian art, a treasure chest of ancient devotion, defined as the “Sistine Chapel” of rock wall painting for the cycle of frescoes representing the theme of Creation and Original Sin, the work of the skilful hand of the “Painter of the flowers of Matera“.
The frescoes, saved from mosses, lichens and cyanobacteria attack by an important restoration project, represent three niches on the left wall, on which the triarchies of the Apostles, the Virgin Mary and the Archangels are respectively portrayed. The back wall, instead illustrate a large pictorial cycle depicting episodes of Creation and Original Sin.
In May 1963 the crypt was discovered by a group of young Matera enthusiasts, turning from the local shepherds a country sheepfold, to an unmissable stop for a unique tour in Basilicata.
Who plan to visit Matera cannot miss this pretty and evocative destination, of which few know the existence, linked to a history, that at the same time is authentic spirituality and culture.
The Crypt of original sin, in addition to its unique geological structure, is immersed in a rural landscape made of vineyards and olive groves and land interspersed with barren and rocky areas.
After passing the Murgia of Matera , for those wishing to discover the Lucanian soul, the predominantly lunar scenario and the silence of the Calanchi Reserve opens up, an open-air museum of ancient finds and fossils, which draw harsh and suggestive panoramas.
Visiting these places is truly an experience to try. For this reason Palazzo Del Duca organizes among the many tours in Matera, also a package that includes a visit to the Crypt of the Original Sin.
A tour that is accompanied by the extraordinary experience of sleeping in Matera in the Sassi, in a unique location that takes your breath away.
