Chiesa di Santa Maria di Idris

Chiesa di Santa Maria di Idris tickets: which one to buy

Santa Maria di Idris is cut into the Monterrone, the tall rock spur that rises in the middle of the Sasso Caveoso in Matera, and it is among the half dozen rock churches sold on a combined ticket. Buy the combination rather than a single entry, since the churches explain each other. The climb to the door is short but steep and the last stretch is on rock steps with a handrail, which makes this one of the less accessible sites in the town.

Guided tours of the Sassi include it, and a guide is genuinely useful here because the frescoes are fragmentary and the layout is confusing. The view from the terrace outside is the best free one in Matera, straight down over the old quarter and across the gorge. Opening hours are shorter in winter and the churches close at lunchtime, so plan around that rather than assuming. Bring a small torch, since the tunnel between the two chapels is lit only at intervals.

Visiting Chiesa di Santa Maria di Idris: what to see

The rock itself is the building. A chapel was hollowed into the top of the spur, with a small whitewashed front added later so that from a distance it looks like an ordinary church perched on a crag. Inside, a narrow passage leads back through the rock and connects to a second, older church, San Giovanni in Monterrone, buried entirely within the stone. That tunnel is the point of the visit: you pass from a lit chapel into a series of chambers whose columns and arches were carved rather than built, their surfaces covered with frescoes from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, layered over one another as each generation repainted.

Saints in the Byzantine manner survive beside later Latin work. Damp has taken much of it and the remaining colour is faint, which is why photography with flash is not allowed. The complex was used as a store and shelter for centuries before restoration. The whitewashed front was added in the eighteenth century and is the only built element on the whole rock.

Chiesa di Santa Maria di Idris opening hours and the best time to go

Spring and autumn are the seasons for Matera. The rock holds heat and the climb to this church in July is genuinely hard; the interiors are cool at any time and cold in winter. Morning light is good in the Sasso Caveoso and the spur casts a long shadow by late afternoon. The town is at its best after dark, when the cave fronts are lit, though the rock churches close well before then.

Christmas brings a living nativity staged through the caves and the gorge that draws large crowds. Wear shoes with grip: the stone steps throughout the Sassi are polished and slippery when wet. Tickets are sold at each church rather than centrally. Allow twenty minutes for this one and its tunnel, and a full day for the Sassi as a whole. Guides usually pair this church with the one across the ravine and cover both in a single ticketed circuit.