Sant’Antonio Abate

Sant'Antonio Abate tickets: which one to buy

This is one of the rock-cut churches of Matera, carved into the tufa of the ravine rather than built on it, and it is usually visited on a combined ticket covering several of them. Buying that ticket is the sensible approach: individual entries cost almost as much as the group, and the churches only make sense in series, since each shows a different stage of the same tradition.

Guided tours of the Sassi are widely available, cheap, and genuinely necessary here, because the cave churches are scattered through the two old districts and the paths between them are unmarked and steep. Evening tours with lighting are offered in summer. If you would rather walk alone, download a map and wear proper shoes. The churches keep shorter hours than the town and some close in winter or between seasons, so check which are open on the day rather than planning around a list.

Visiting Sant'Antonio Abate: what to see

Matera's ravine holds well over a hundred rock churches, cut between roughly the eighth and the fifteenth centuries by monks and by the farming families who lived in the caves around them. This one belongs to a group carved into the tufa at the edge of the inhabited district, its interiors shaped to imitate built architecture: columns, arches and apses cut from the living rock rather than assembled, with the ceiling worked to look vaulted.

Fragments of fresco survive on the walls, saints in the Byzantine manner painted over several centuries and damaged by damp and by later use. That later use is part of the story. After the churches were abandoned, families turned them into cellars, stables and stores, and traces of wine vats and animal stalls survive alongside the painted figures. Matera as a whole was listed by UNESCO in 1993, and these churches are the reason as much as the cave dwellings. Crosses and simple votive marks scratched into the walls by later occupants survive beside the painted saints.

Sant'Antonio Abate opening hours and the best time to go

Spring and autumn are right for Matera. The stone holds heat and the ravine in July and August is punishing, while the caves stay cool at any season and can be cold in winter. Mornings give the best light in the Sassi; late afternoon is better for photographs across the gorge. The town is at its most atmospheric after dark, when the cave fronts are lit and the whole hillside glows, and Christmas brings a living nativity staged through the caves that is one of the largest in Italy.

Matera has become popular since its year as a European capital of culture and since a series of films used the ravine, so book accommodation ahead in season. There is a good deal of climbing involved in any visit here and very little shade. Allow twenty minutes for this church and a full day for the Sassi. Tickets for the rock churches are sold at the sites themselves rather than at a central office.