The cave of S. Michele is a majestic example of the grandeur of a “rock habitat”, one of the largest in Apulia. The complex is located in the Fondovito district on the eastern side of the Canapro or “Gravina” stream, a stream which is characterised by numerous caves dug into the “tufo”, used over the centuries as homes and places of worship. The rupestrian complex, formerly a place of pagan worship, probably of the god Asclepius, a divinity invoked for healing from illnesses, became a Micaelic sanctuary towards the 10th century. All this thanks to the Lombards, who freed Gravina from the siege of the Saracens in 977, led by the emir Abu al-Quasim, an ally of the Byzantines…