Gravina in Puglia

Gravina in Puglia is a town of around 45,000 inhabitants in the Bari province, built along the rim and slopes of a deep limestone ravine carved by the Gravina stream, which gives the town its name. The gorge is the defining feature: sheer vertical walls 50–60 metres high drop from the town's southern edge, and a single-arch medieval bridge (the Ponte Acquedotto) spans the ravine at a visually dramatic point above the gorge floor. The town was inhabited from prehistoric times, and the ravine walls contain rupestrian (cave) churches carved directly into the limestone, the most significant being the Chiesa rupestre di Santa Maria degli Angeli, accessible on a footpath along the gorge floor. The historic centre contains substantial Baroque architecture accumulated during Gravina's prosperity as a fiefdom of the Orsini family, most prominently the 16th-century Cathedral on Piazza Benedetto XIII — a mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles — and the Palazzo Orsini opposite, now housing the Museo Civico Pomarici Santomasi. The museum's most celebrated exhibit is a panel painting of the Madonna della Grazia attributed to a follower of Leonardo da Vinci's school, alongside Apulian antiquities and numismatic collections. The gorge path (Via Fondo Valle) descends from the medieval bridge area and follows the ravine floor for around two kilometres, passing troglodyte dwellings, rupestrian churches, and early medieval cave habitations. The elevated viewing terrace above the bridge on Via Madonna della Stella provides the classic panorama of the gorge and bridge together — one of the finest sight lines in inland Apulia. Gravina is 60 km from Bari by car and 35 km from Matera in Basilicata, making it a rewarding pairing on the same day.