The Cathedral of Matera , which has the official name of Cathedral of the Madonna della Bruna and Sant'Eustachio , is the main Catholic place of worship in 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.
Built on the site of a previous Norman castle and as recent excavations on a previous early Christian place of worship attest, it is the most majestic cathedral in the region.
On the site 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 starting in 1230 , a few years after Pope Innocent III had elevated the city of Matera to the rank of archdiocese in union with Acerenza ; it was erected at the behest of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia , Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and Count of Matera . To ensure that the new temple dominated with its mass the surrounding buildings and the two underlying valleys of the Sassi, it was necessary to raise the rocky base by over six metres.