Echi bizantini nell'architettura rupestre pugliese : l'esempio della chiesa di Lama d'Antico a Fasano (Brindisi)

Abstract

Architectural analysis shows that the rock church of Lama d'Antico in Fasano in Puglia is an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional local elements and Byzantine influences. Lama d'Antico is a village in a small settlement consisting of caves formed in a fluvial depression (lama), in the region of Brindisi that provided habitation and production spaces. Archaeological surveys conclude that the village was inhabited between 900 and 1300. That the Pugliese stonecutters who fashioned the cave church were subject to Byzantine influence is evident particularly in the church's plan, which consists of two apses joined in a crosscutting square – a plan common in Puglia's rock churches. The same arrangement appears in many churches in the Byzantine Empire's outlying provinces between the ninth and twelfth centuries.