Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Church of our lady of the three doors

 This church is in Park Murgia and away from civilization. It had three naves and therefore had three doors but time and weather has not been kind, the door has fallen off and left the church vulnerable to weather and thieves. If you look carefully at the first two images, you'll noticed that there is a ring around the woman on the far left. Someone tried to pry her off the wall but she was so fragile that they had to stop before she fell apart. So she was spared!
 In fact, this was the church from which numerous panels were pried off the frescoes and removed.





The local authorities reported the incident to Interpol and they found the stolen frescoes in Germany. Some were recovered and now have been restored and resides in the museum in Matera, the Museo Palazzo Lanfranchi. Today this church is under lock and key but your guide can retrieve the key from a caretaker office. Its a problem all over Italy, there is just not enough resources to restore everything and to keep them open for the world to see. But whatever we can see is plenty. Keep on traveling.

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