Crypt of the Original Sin

Hidden in a cave on the side of a ravine outside Matera, the Crypt of the Original Sin holds one of the most remarkable cycles of early medieval wall painting in southern Italy, so complete and so vivid that it has been called the Sistine Chapel of rock-cut art. The small church was carved into the rock between the eighth and ninth centuries, and its walls are painted with scenes from the Book of Genesis, above all the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve, from which the crypt takes its name.

The frescoes are attributed to a single artist known as the Painter of the Flowers of Matera, possibly a Benedictine monk, after the flowers he scattered across the background of his scenes. Alongside the Genesis cycle he painted three groups of three figures: the apostles Peter, Andrew and John; a group of queenly figures centred on the Virgin and Child flanked by two female figures; and the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The style is distinctly Lombard, with only slight Byzantine influence, and the evidence points to a Benedictine community that used the cave as its church.

For centuries afterwards the cave was forgotten, used only as a shelter for shepherds and their flocks, until it was rediscovered on 1 May 1963 by members of a Matera cultural association, the Circolo La Scaletta. The crypt lies on the slopes of the Gravina di Picciano, in the rocky countryside around Matera, a city famous for its Sassi, districts of cave dwellings cut into the limestone. Among the many rock-hewn churches of the area, this one is singled out for the completeness and age of its painted cycle.

Getting there

The crypt is in the Contrada Pietrapenta, in the countryside about 7 km from the centre of Matera, Basilicata. The nearest airport is Bari Karol Wojtyła International Airport (BRI), about 60 km away.