The 'Thebaid of Italy' with rock churches and villages
Between the Murgia and the Gulf of Taranto, the land is cut by deep gravine, karst ravines carved by water into the limestone, the "Italian canyons". Those of Massafra are among the most spectacular: the town itself is divided in two by the Gravina di San Marco, crossed by bridges, and its walls are dotted with hundreds of caves. In the early Middle Ages, between the eighth and thirteenth centuries, Byzantine monks and local communities lived here in rock villages, with houses, stables, cisterns and churches dug into the rock, so many that Massafra has been called the "Thebaid of Italy", after the Egyptian desert of the hermits.
The rock churches of Massafra preserve frescoes of Byzantine saints of great beauty: the Candelora, with two naves and frescoes from the thirteenth century; San Marco, with a Greek inscription; San Leonardo and Sant'Antonio Abate. In the Gravina della Madonna della Scala stands a baroque sanctuary reached by a monumental staircase of 125 steps, built above an older rock church with a fresco of the Madonna, and below lies the Farmacia del Mago Greguro, a complex of caves with niches, which legend says was the laboratory of a sorcerer who prepared herbal remedies. The ravines are part of the Terra delle Gravine regional park, with paths among Mediterranean scrub and rare plants.
Tip: many rock churches can be visited only with a guide; ask at the tourist office in Massafra. Wear comfortable shoes for the paths in the ravines.
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