The rock churches

The rupestral churches are grottoes which were either dug into the sides of the ravine or in the tuffaceous rock of the Sassi by monks who come mainly from the East  between the VIII and the XII centuries and found refuge here. They transformed the damp and dark caverns into places of worship and life. First hermits, then entire monastic communities dug to make beds, water tanks and cattlesheds, and they decorated the bare walls of the grottoes with sacred images.

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