The city of Massafra or Massà fre, in the local dialect, is a charming town within the Terra delle Gravine Regional Natural Park and from its 110 meters above sea level, it enjoys a spectacular panorama that embraces the Gulf of Taranto up to to the mountains of Calabria. The territory of Massafra is very rich in history, the city has been able to defend and maintain over time the precious testimonies of a very distant past such as those found in the Madonna della Scala ravine.
In this enchanting area, rich in unique vegetation, caves have been dug out of the tuff and used as dwellings. Over time, a real rock village has taken shape. In some cases the houses consisted of a simple cave in others they had a very complex structure as for example in the abode known as the Mago Greguro, a fascinating complex of twelve caves connected to each other by a dense system of passages. In addition to cave dwellings, the territory of Massafra offers the opportunity to visit about thirty rock churches or Byzantine crypts of great iconographic and architectural interest.
We advise you to visit the Buona Nuova, San Marco, San Leonardo, Sant'Antonio and La Candelora crypts, because they are particularly suggestive, even if all the historical / artistic heritage linked to the rock civilization and scattered both in the inhabited center and outside the city, is extremely interesting and of great value.
