Massafra
The municipality has 32 548 inhabitants Massafra (as of 31 December 2012) and is 100 meters above sea level and 18 km north-west of Taranto in the province in Apulia near the Ionian Sea. The city is famous for its caves and frescoed cave churches ( Chiesa Ipogeica ), of which there are about 50 in the city.
Geography
The city is located on both edges of the ravine " Gravina di San Marco". The old and new combine only two bridges. On the outskirts opens the 40 m deep and 30 to 50 m wide " Gravina Principale " - another four kilometers long canyon. In it lies behind the clinging to the rock sanctuary " Madonna della Scala ", the oldest church of this space, a vast cave complex, which was dug into the soft limestone.
The Caves
The up to 200 m deep gorges on the terraces of the Murgia, which descends towards the Gulf, formed by erosion, since the karst the rain can not save forms and carts that add up to Gravinen extended and caves such as the caves of Castallana created. Prehistoric finds show that the caves were used already in the Palaeolithic period. In the early Middle Ages lived in the canyons around Massafra hermits or monks who hid before pursuers. In the late Middle Ages it served as a refuge from pirates and invaders. Among the caves protrude out the ( under this name in Italy, occurring several times ) Grotta del Ciclope ( cave of the Cyclops ), the Farmacia del Mago Greguro and the Grotta del Frantoio.
Thesaurus Massafrensis
In the Grotta del Tesoretto a coin hoard was discovered in 1973. It contained about 135 small Byzantine and Vandal coins from the period from the late 4th to early 6th century. The Vandal bronze coins were minted under the kings Genseric, Huneric, Gunthamund, Thrasamund and Hilderic.
Cave churches
The monks who lived permanently in the Gravinen Massafra, came in the 8th and 9th centuries from the Balkans and Asia Minor. They left their homeland because of the iconoclastic laws forbidding them the icon painting. The prayer cells were partially extended to three-nave cave churches and painted. The frescoes on the cave walls are magnifications of the icons. Even today, the former colors can be seen in some cave churches - but sometimes only fragmentary. Not only the weather was gnawing at the bequest, but especially the vandalism. Among the 25 attraction on its cave churches tower above the Chiesa di S. Ipogeica Posidonio, the Chiesa della Candelora, the Chiesa ed insediamento rupestre di Millarti, the Chiesa della Buona rupestre Nuova and the Chiesa rupestre Madonna della Greca out.