Four rock churches around a shared courtyard – later a wine cellar, today open again. A complex that shows how flexibly consecrated spaces were treated.
Four churches, one courtyard
The Convicinio lies in the Sasso Caveoso and consists of four adjoining rock churches sharing a forecourt. The complex goes back to the twelfth or thirteenth century. The courtyard is more than an access route: it follows the same idea that governs the residential courtyards of the Sassi – several rooms around a common centre, see courtyards and rock gardens.
A second life
Once church use ended, the rooms served as cellars and stores – among other things for wine. Traces of that use are still visible, such as basins let into the floor and hollows in the ground. What looks like desecration today was common sense then: the space was there, cool and dry, and nobody built anything new while something usable stood.
What there is to see
Remains of frescoes, altars and apses worked out of the rock, and the shared courtyard that ties the four entrances together. The churches differ noticeably in size and finish – seen side by side, it becomes readable how differently elaborate such rooms could be.
Practical
The complex lies slightly off the main routes in the Caveoso and is therefore usually quiet. Access is by steps; inside it is cool.
Read on
- Sasso Caveoso – the district around it
- Santa Lucia alle Malve – the convent church nearby
- Rock churches in and around Matera – the overview
