santuario, diocesano, Santuario Diocesano San Francesco da Paola

Standing at the edge of the Piano, on the road that leads into neighbouring Puglia, this sanctuary began life as a project for a seventeenth-century confraternity. Founded in the first half of the 1600s at the rock church of Santa Maria de Armeniis, the brotherhood eventually secured royal and archdiocesan approval to build a new home outside the city’s Porta Maggiore. Construction began in 1774, but funds ran short; the lower part went up that year, along with the sacristy and ancillary rooms, while the upper order was only completed in 1791. The resulting Baroque church is a testament to persistence. Today, its liturgical year peaks on 2 April, the feast of its patron, and on 2 July, when the Processione dei Pastori ends here during the celebrations for Maria Santissima della Bruna, protector of Matera and its archdiocese. Raised to a diocesan sanctuary in 1974, it remains a quiet landmark on the edge of town.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.