Montescaglioso and the Abbey of Sant'Angelo
A frescoed Benedictine abbey overlooking the Bradano valley
On a hill a few kilometres from Matera, overlooking the valley of the Bradano river and, in the distance, the Ionian Sea, Montescaglioso is an ancient town with a historic centre of stone houses, churches and noble palaces, dominated by one of the largest and most important monasteries of southern Italy: the Abbey of Sant'Angelo, also called the Abbazia di San Michele Arcangelo. Founded by the Benedictines in the eleventh century, under the Normans, the abbey became very powerful, with lands and properties throughout Basilicata and Apulia, and was enlarged and transformed several times over the centuries, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, taking on its present majestic appearance. Suppressed in the nineteenth century, it was used for various purposes and then restored.
The abbey is organised around two splendid cloisters, one of the Renaissance period and one larger, with arcades and loggias, overlooked by the rooms of the monastery. Inside, the most precious environment is the old library and the adjoining rooms, decorated with sixteenth-century frescoes with "grottesche", fantastic figures, plant motifs, landscapes and allegorical scenes, of great refinement, and the chapter house. The visit also includes the monks' cells, the kitchen and the refectory. From the terraces of the abbey and the belvederes of the town, the view sweeps over the Bradano valley, the badlands and the plain. The historic centre of Montescaglioso preserves other interesting churches, such as the Chiesa Madre dei Santi Pietro e Paolo.
Tip: check the opening times of the abbey, which can be visited with guided tours; combine it with a visit to Matera.
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