San Pietro Caveoso

San Pietro Caveoso, also known as "Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church" is a Catholic church situated in the Sassi of Matera.

San Pietro Caveoso
Religion
Affiliation	Catholic Church
Province	Basilicata
Rite	Roman Rite
Status	Active
Location
Location	Matera, Basilicata Italy
State	Italy
Architecture
Type	Church
Monument historique

The front is in the baroque style and presents three portals. Over each portal there is a niche with statues. They show the "Madonna of the mercy", "Saint Peter" (over the left portal) and "Saint Paul" (over the right portal). The side niches are surmounted by two rectangular windows and the central one by two single-lancet windows. There is a rose window and a bell tower with a pyramidal cusp [it] on it.

The central nave ceiling is adorned with pictures of "Jesus and Saint Peter" and "Saint Paul's conversion". The 18th-century altar has a wooden polyptych dating back to 1540, painted by an anonymous artist from Matera. The church originally had eight chapels, but the right four were demolished to build the oratory. In the fourth left chapel there is a baptismal font from the 13th century. It is 17.2 m (56 ft) wide and 43 m (141 ft) long and has a deep choir.

The church has been recently consolidated, with a project about soil consolidation and general anchorage of the macro-elements of the building, and between the building and the foundation rock.^[1]

• Exterior
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  Rear view
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  Façade and bell tower
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  San Pietro Caveoso church and the rocky outcrop on which Madonna de Idris church is built
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  San Pietro Caveoso church and the rocky outcrop at blue hour

• Interior
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  The interior
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  The choir
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  Main altar with the polyptych Madonna and Child with saints Peter and Paul (1540)
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  16th-century Madonna and Child
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  Fresco of the Holy Family
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  Side chapel of the Holy Sacrament, with remains of 17th-century frescos
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  Central and rear part of the dropped ceiling : the Virgin of Gonfalone and the Conversion of Paul