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Until relatively recently, a cave in southern Italy was obscured by Biblical frescoes dating back a thousand years.
One of many caves in the side of a ravine that runs across the Murgia Plateau in southern Italy, the Crypt of the Original Sin features beautiful wall art that has endured for over a thousand years, earning it the nickname “The Sistine Chapel of Rupestrian Art.” The cave system seems to have been occupied on and off since the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, and around the 9th century became the home of monks who had come over to southern Italy from Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. One of those monks, today known only as “The Painter of Flowers of Matera,” painted beautiful images from the Bible on the cave walls. Some of which have remained unchanged for over a thousand years, earning it the nickname “The Sistine Chapel of Rupestrian Art.”
