Twelve kilometres from the town, on the Altojanni plateau, is what is left of a vanished medieval city: a defensive building, a church and a great many pits dug to store provisions. Why it emptied nobody knows; it was probably already finished by the fifteenth century.
Grottole, on the other hand, stayed, and the name gives the trade: from the Latin cryptulae, the little caves where clay was worked, and clay is still worked here. On the small hill of the Motta stands the castle said to have been raised in 851 by the Lombard prince Sichinolfo of Salerno; at the start of the nineteenth century it had thirteen rooms above, six below, the stable and the cellar. There are 2,371 residents.
chiesa dei Santi Luca e Giuliano · Castello Sichinulfo · riserva regionale San Giuliano and 3 more
Pane di Matera
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Next up: Saint Roch, a patron venerated after the plague of 1655, Monday 16 August
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 68 km away
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📅 Every year, on 16 August
Grottole celebrates Saint Roch on 16 August; devotion to the French pilgrim saint spread after the plague of 1655, and his church holds a huge 17th-century polyptych of the Works of Mercy.
chiesa dei Santi Luca e Giuliano Roofless since the eighteenth century: the largest church in Grottole lost its vaults. 
Castello Sichinulfo It stands on the Motta, a hillock cut off from the town, watching the Basento and Bradano valleys. 
riserva regionale San Giuliano A Pleistocene fossil whale, 27 metres long, surfaced on the shore of this lake. 
chiesa di Sant'Antonio abate The sanctuary stands on the Altojanni plateau, beside the ruins of a vanished medieval town. 
chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore A former Dominican friary is attached to Grottole's mother church; inside, 18th-century altars and choir. 
Castello di Altojanni A tower, a church and food pits: what is left of a medieval city that vanished by the 15th century. Durum wheat semolina, thick crust, shaped as a horn or a tall loaf: Pane di Matera has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2008.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Grottole, but an easy day trip away.
