One of the oldest masonry churches in the city – and an early building outside the walls of its day, which was unusual at the time.
A building beyond the gates
San Giovanni Battista was built in the thirteenth century. It counts as one of the earliest churches in southern Italy erected outside the walled core – at a time when churches were built inside the walls for safety. That presupposes a city confident enough to grow beyond its own edge.
Architecture
The building combines Apulian Romanesque with early Gothic elements: strong piers, pointed arches, sparing ornament. The interior feels brighter and higher than in the city’s older churches – the shift to a new understanding of building is directly visible. Capitals and corbels carry figural decoration that rewards a closer look.
A changing use
Over the centuries the church was rededicated and rebuilt several times before it took its present name and form. That too is typical of Matera: hardly any building here has only one history.
Setting
The church stands in the upper town, a few minutes from Piazza Vittorio Veneto – off the main axis and therefore usually quiet.
Read on
- Churches in Matera – the overview
- The old town of Matera – the upper town around it
- Cattedrale di Matera – the building of the same era on the Civita
