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Sometimes, free-standing structures were built on sites as well. In Matera, residents built
masonry walls, terraces for gardens, and streets, while in Puglia walls were also con-
structed from excavated material (Laureano, 1993: 14–15, 71; Navedoro, 2006: 11).
Religious housesThe troglodyte settlements contained a variety of religious houses, including baptismal
churches, funerary chapels, monasteries, hermitages, shrines, mosques, and synagogues.
In places such as Puglia, churches and monasteries were at the center of the troglodyte
villages; most were small, private religious houses that served the needs of the communities,
much like above-ground churches in the region. In fact cave churches imitated masonry
ones in many ways, and it does not appear that religious organization or practices in cave
villages differed from those of above-ground settlements (Lavermicocca, 1977; 144–146;
Fonseca, 1988: 22). Malta also contains numerous rupestrian churches, most of which
probably date to the late medieval era of re-Christianization and most of which were
small, humble affairs (Messina, 1989: 116–117; Buhagiar, 1986).
Cave mosques have been found in Sicily, identified by their orientation to the south
toward Mecca as well as their mihrabs and qibla walls. Though no cave churches from
the Arab era have yet been identified on Sicily, many survive from the Norman period,
most likely part of the re-Christianization of the population after the Norman con-
quest. Romanesque cave churches dating through the seventeenth century are found
on Sicily as well (Messina, 2008: 37–47; Giglio, 2002: 6). The troglodyte settlement
of Douiret in Tunisia included two mosques with hypogea, courtyards for prayer, and
masonry minarets, as well as four cave shrines (Besana and Mainetti, 2000: 60–61,
67–69). In Cappadocia the courtyard manors contained household churches, some of
which were quite large (Kalas, 2000: 59, 117–118). Jewish cave villages in Libya
included troglodyte synagogues (Goldberg, 1972: 14).
Wall decorations have survived in many of the cave churches and monasteries. The
paintings mainly depicted scenes from the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or other
saints, and were most likely meant for didactic purposes. Many of the cave churches
were built in areas under Byzantine rule, and stylistically have been linked to Byzantine
religious architecture. Nonetheless, some rupestrian religious houses included both
“Greek” and “Latin” elements, particularly in southern Italy. Churches here contain
inscriptions in both Latin and Greek and depict both “eastern” and “western” saints,
such as the rupestrian church of SS Lorenzo and Euplo at Fasano which juxtaposes
portraits of Saints Basil and Benedict. Written evidence suggests that Greek-speaking
and Latin-speaking clerics administered religious houses together in this region, and
that some churches served both Latin and Greek populations. According to some
scholars, the mixing of “eastern” and “western” techniques and iconography pro-
duced a unique southern Italian painting style, referred to as “Apulo-Byzantine” or
“Italianized Greek” (Lavermicocca, 1977: 85–86, 146–147).
The economy of cave villagesIn most places troglodyte settlements were located close to agricultural fields, pastures,
and forests. In southern Italy and Sicily they were at the center of rural economies that
combined the cultivation of crops with a silvo-pastoral regime that included the