The date of this church's organization and original construction are unknown. The date (1093) in the drop down box below refers to the year that Pope Urban II is known to have visited.
The Matera Welcome website (
visit link) indicates that the current facade was erected in 1751.
Wikipedia (
visit link) (as translated by Google)informs us:
"The first nucleus of the church was an ancient underground church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, which can still be visited today by accessing through a trap door from a chapel and containing a fresco depicting Pope Urban II's visit to Matera in 1093. The name dates back to a visit to the church reported by some chroniclers of Saint Francis of Assisi in 1218.
The church has undergone numerous transformations, with an original structure dating back to the first halfof the 13th century, enlarged in the 15th century, to assume its current state in the 18th century with the construction of the Baroque façade by the architects Vito Valentino and Tommaso Pennetta.
Description
The Baroque facade houses three statues in the upper part, with the Immaculate Conception in the center and San Francesco and Sant'Antonio on the sides. The interior has a single nave with a flat painted ceiling, along which side chapels open.
The nave ends with the quadrangular apse, introduced by a pointed arch and covered with a cross vault; close to the back wall, behind the high altar, is the choir stall, whose parapet is decorated with the compartments of a 15th century polyptych with nine tempera paintings on wood, attributed to Lazzaro Bastiani. Above it is the pipe organ, built by the Fratelli Ruffatti in 1955 and modified by them in 1978, with electric transmission and 22 register on two manuals and pedal."
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