The Apulian Romanesque cathedral on the Civita, between the two Sassi
On the highest point of the Civita, the rocky spur that separates the two Sassi of Matera, stands the Cathedral of Santa Maria della Bruna and Sant'Eustachio, whose tall bell tower, about 52 metres high, is visible from every corner of the city and is its symbol. It was built between 1230 and 1270 in the Apulian Romanesque style, in local tufa stone, with a sober and elegant façade dominated by a large rose window with sixteen rays, surmounted by the figure of Saint Michael the Archangel, and a side decorated with a beautiful portal and a loggia. From the square in front of the cathedral, the view sweeps over the Sasso Barisano and the Sasso Caveoso and the Murgia opposite.
The interior, with three naves, was transformed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in a rich Baroque style, with stuccoes, gilded decorations and a coffered ceiling, but it also preserves older works, such as a large fresco of the Last Judgement of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a fresco of the Madonna della Bruna, patron saint of the city, of Byzantine style, a nativity scene in stone of the sixteenth century and a wooden choir. After a long restoration, the cathedral reopened in 2016. Every year on 2 July, Matera celebrates the Festa della Bruna: after a procession in which the statue of the Madonna is carried on a richly decorated papier-mâché float, the float is attacked and torn to pieces by the crowd, who take home the fragments as good-luck charms, in the "assalto al carro".
Tip: visit the cathedral and then walk along the edge of the Civita; if you are in Matera on 2 July, see the Festa della Bruna.
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