The earliest settlements dating back to the Paleolithic, make Gravina (Sidion for the Greeks and Silvium for the Romans), a city with a very ancient history. Located on one of the sides of a ravine, more than 100 metres deep, very similar to a canyon, where the presence of numerous rock cavities inhabited for a long time by its population, gave it the nickname “Matera of Puglia”.
The town centre of Gravina has a hidden part that make it unique and rare: under the inhabited area is a well-kept underground world, with tunnels, cellars, stone churces, granaries, seventeenth century ovens.
Gravina is beautiful, really very beautiful. But not a shameless beauty, but hidden in the folds of a dress that nature and man have designed tailor-made over time, a truly evocative panorama.
The town also has enchanting places of art not to be missed.
The rock church of San Michele delle Grotte, dated around the 1000’s, is carved out of tufo and features five naves and 14 stone columns. It’s one of the most interesting churches in the area. It has several frescoes and three statues in stone and chalk. The ancient crypt of San Vito, a fascinating place of worship completely frescoed, still stands solitary in the street of the same name, hemmed in by a private garden, in the bakers district.
The Castle ruins, nicely located at the top of a hill, this now ruined castle once belonged to Fredrick II. It is believed to have been used primarily as a hunting mansion, for bird hunts.
Visit the Ettore Pomarici Santomasi Museum, with access to the beautiful cloisters of Santa Sofia and San Sebastiano and the Finia Capitular Library founded in 1686 by Cardinal Vincenzo Maria Orsini, who became Pope Benedict XIII in 1724 and that has over 15,000 volumes of great value.
The third weekend of September, Gravina hosts the International Meeting of Medieval Historical Parades: the most beautiful companies of medieval parades arrive from the world with costume parades, bands, historical reenactments, tournaments, duels, gun demonstrations and shows.
