A town of 10,102 people has four monastic complexes. The largest is the Benedictine abbey of San Michele Arcangelo, which from 1078 held jurisdiction over itself and the land around it, answering to no bishop: a small monks' state above the Murgia. Inside, a tuff telamon that came back here in 2015 from the museum in Reggio Calabria.
The carnival is documented from 1638 and is among the most important in Basilicata. The name has two opposite explanations: Mons Scabiosus, scabby mountain, for the bare ground, or Mons Caveosus, mountain full of caves — and looking at the badlands and the ravine around, both work.
Pane di Matera
21 places to stay · top rated: Somnium Vitae - Casa Vacanze 10.0 · La Volpe e la Stella by Podere Carriero 9.8
Next up: Saint Roch and the cart pulled by seven horses, Wednesday 18 August
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 66 km away
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, from 18 to 20 August
From 18 to 20 August Montescaglioso celebrates Saint Roch and Maria SS. Assunta: on the evening of the 20th, seven horses pull the triumphal cart through the streets of the town.
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 Montescaglioso, but an easy day trip away.
