Church of San Francesco d'Assisi Holy Water Fonts - Matera, Italy
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 40° 39.926 E 016° 36.558
33T E 636029 N 4502863
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.
Waymark Code: WM17QMP
Location: Puglia, Italy
Date Posted: 03/24/2023
Views: 0
A placard adjacent to this church's holy water fonts indicates that they are from the 13th century. Unfortunately my photo of the placard (and my knowledge of Italian)are too blurry to gain too much more information about these obviously historic pieces.
The font is about 4 feet high, made of stone (marble?) with a wide basin atop a narrow pedestal.
The Matera Welcome website (
visit link) indicates that the current facade was erected in 1751.
"The original 13th-century church must have been located in a position at a right angle to the current one. Its imposing façade, in Rococo style from 1751, has large windows full of friezes.
Its single nave interior is refined with stucco work from 1756 and numerous 17th-century paintings from the Neapolitan school. On its 17th.century choir, there are nine panels of Venetian art which make up the beautiful polyptych attributed to Lazzaro Bastiani, painted in 1470 with the images of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Paul, a Madonna and Child, St. Peter, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Bernard of Siena and St. Catherine of Alessandria. Its flat ceiling, decorated by local artist Vito Epifania in1945 covered the painted wooden trusses from the 14th century. Of particular interest are the polychrome stone statues of a Madonna and Child from 1518 and of St. Anthony from 1520, by Stefano da Putignano."