Altars, aedicules and frescoes

Entering the cave on the left of the stairs there is an altar / aedicule on the front part there is a recently restored fresco. Until recently it was ruined and illegible in the central part due to humidity being in direct contact with the rock. Assuming that it represented a Crucifixion as there is a residual inscription INRI, the two side figures still visible can be identified as the Madonna (Mater Dolorosa) and St. John the Evangelist. It can be considered with a good approximation that these frescoes date back to the time of the first arrangement of the cave, that is to 1568 and the hand that made them is the same that painted Santa Maria de la Madia 1564 which is located exactly on the opposite side.

 

The side altar on the right of the cave is dedicated to S. Maria de la Madia, and as you can see from the structure it is the first altar built in the same, with a raw and spartan table made up of two simple limestone blocks. On the two sides of the aedicule are represented Sant'Antonio Abate and San Rocco, the latter, according to the popular Putignano imagination that uses to represent him in this way, with the inevitable little dog and the scar of the plague on his left knee. Climbing on a stool available nearby it is possible to see some human bones in the burial obtained at the back of the aedicule.