The Cathedral of the Madonna della Bruna and Sant’Eustachio is the main Catholic place of worship in the city of Matera, the mother church of the archdiocese of Matera-Irsina. The cathedral was built in Apulian Romanesque style in the 13th century on the highest spur of the Civita that divides the two Sassi.
On the area of the ancient Benedictine monastery of Sant’Eustachio, protector of the city, where Pope Urban II had already stayed between 1093 and 1094, the Cathedral was built from 1230, some years after Pope Innocent III had elevated the city of Matera to the rank of archdiocese in union with Acerenza; in order for the new temple to dominate the surrounding buildings and the two valleys below the Sassi, it was necessary to raise the rocky base of more than six meters. Completed in 1270, the new Cathedral was originally dedicated to St. Mary of Matera, as it results from a notarial deed of the time. Later, in a testament of 1318, it was named after St. Mary of the Episcope and from 1389, the year in which Pope Urban VI (former Archbishop of Matera) instituted the feast of the Visitation, it was named after St. Mary of the Brown, also the patron saint of the city. Finally, in 1627, Monsignor Fabrizio Antinori, Archbishop of Matera, named the Cathedral of Matera after the Madonna della Bruna and St. Eustace. On 2 July 1962 John XXIII raised the cathedral to a minor basilica.
