The church was built between the 9th and 11th centuries, before the arrival of the Normans in Puglia. In the Byzantine period (876 - 1071) the Basilian monks spread in Puglia and where they find natural tuffaceous or limestone caves with low humidity they settled in small communities adapting them to worship, as can be observed in Gravina di Puglia, in Andria, in Mottola, in Massafra, where chiancarelle abound, that is thin limestone slabs, already used by our builders for trulli and haystacks. The church of San Basilio, bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia, stands near the border with Bitonto, is characterized by a crusader quadrilateral, with ships orthogonal to each other and four isolated supports at the crossing points, there is a similarity with the church of san salvatore by Rometta Messinese.