habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

RUPESTRIAN CHURCHES OF PALAGIANELLOS. BertacchiDipartimento di Architettura, Disegno, Storia, Progetto; Facoltà di Architettura; Università degli Studi di Firenze, ItaliaAt present, only eight rupestrian churches still exist in the ancientsettlement of the deep valley of Palagianello (Apulia): thechurches dedicated to St. Girolamo, St. Andrea, St. Nicola, tothe Holy Hermits and the so-called Nameless Church, are alllocated on the east slope of the ‘gravina’; the churches of Serrapizzuta,Jazzo Rivolta and Santa Lucia in the opposite slopeof the valley (fig. 1).The state of preservation of the whole settlement is rather low:heavy destructions were primarily caused by the passing oftime; moreover because of the negligence of the site and thelack of maintenance. Frequently churches underwent modificationsto adapt to new functions, often to become storageareas. In addition to that, the village was partially destroyedup to the Seventies because of the excavation of constructionmaterial in the neighboring pits.In the rupestrian settlement, churches are located in a marginalarea, usually at the top of the village, in reference to ascale of values that regards sacred buildings as the most important.Churches can be organized on different levels, totallyor partially hypogeum, and generally present limited dimension.It is rare to find a main façade as in built architecture,and the access to the interior is through a simple entrance withinscriptions or cross-shaped reliefs. Sepulchers are situated inthe external area, and often also excavated in the stone.In spite of the wide range of plan models, single or multipleaisle, with one or more apses, the composition presents recurringelements in the organization of plans and volumes. Forinstance, the apse always faces East; spaces are quadrangularor fan-shaped; a sharp separation exists between the nave andthe raised sacred area reserved to ceremonies. The ceiling canbe flat or curved in the guise of a dome. Wall fresco paintingsdepicts the Blessed Virgin and the saints the church is dedicatedto, in the form of Byzantine painting technique and withdidactic intents.The ‘Nameless’ rupestrian ChurchThe church is located on the east slope of the gravina of Palagianello,quite far from the other religious buildings of the rupestriansettlement. It is near to the pathway that from the topof the modern city takes to the northernmost area, where theancient village was mostly developed (fig. 2).Of considerable dimensions, the church is composed by aspace divided into distinct areas, all developed along an eastwestaxis (fig. 3).The entrance, a wide opening now collapsed, is partially filledin with tuff square blocks. The first room is the largest, witha flat roof and various niches on the walls; three of them arelocated at about the same height. Even a superficial analysisof the walls reveals the overlapping of different interventions,carried out over the centuries to remodel the space, accordingto new functions of the site (probably an oil mill as evidencedby the circular tank deeply carved in the soil of the first room;afterwardsa shelter for people and / or animals).A single pillar on the right, eroded by time, ideally dividesthe central space from another adjacent, smaller and narrow,facing the apse area. The apse has a square shape with nichessurvived to the changes of the structures made by people, exceptthe altars that have got lost.Fig. 1 The gravina of Palagianello (TA), Apulia, Italy.167volumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 167 16/11/2012 15:02:56