At the bottom of Vico Solitario, under the enormous spur of rock of Monterrone, almost on the edge of the ravine, there is the cave church of Santa Lucia alle Malve, so called from the name of the plant that grew spontaneously in the district of the same name. On its sides developed the female Benedictine monastery, named after Saints Lucia and Agatha, whose lives were intertwined, according to hagiographic stories. Lucia converted to Christianity thanks to Saint Agatha, and she followed her fate, as they both died martyred. This ancient female religious community also expressed a Saint, the Blessed Eugenia, already at the end of the 11th century. On the façade of the rock complex three chalices from different eras are carved, on each of which there are the typical eyes, symbol of the Saint. The nuns abandoned this site in 1283 to move to the Civita district, and towards the end of the eighteenth century they moved again near the Fontana Ferdinandea, in the Piano district. The cave church is characterized by a valuable and harmonious architecture, although not very regular, which manifests the design desire to repeat the model of a built church on the rock. Of the three-nave basilica layout, only the right nave is still open to worship, while the other two naves, following the abandonment of the site by the nuns, were used as a private residence, stable and barn, until the beginning of the 1960s, when the Sassi neighborhoods were evacuated as a result of the first special law of 1952. Once the infills between the central and right nave had been demolished, it was possible to recompose the entire church, which is very large, and characterized by presence of three pillars that divide the central nave from the right one, while two other pillars divide the same central nave from the left one. The right nave has four niches on the wall and, furthermore, as a templum, a mullioned window and a round arch. The templon, or pergula, in early Christian churches was an architectural element, which served to separate the front area of the nave, intended for the faithful, from the rear, presbytery area: the latter ends, in this church, with an original apsidal niche, in which there is a grave for funerary purposes. In the seventeenth century the arch was blocked by a built wall, so that the rear part became a sacristy and was equipped with a skylight, open at the top right. An altar was therefore built in front of the infill wall, on the right side of which, above, in a niche, the seventeenth-century statue of Saint Lucia was placed. The central nave currently only has some arches hanging from the vault, testifying to the two thin pillars that made up the templon, reused to build a flint factory, located to the left of the entrance, when the church became a home. In the same period in which the church was inhabited, a stable was created in correspondence with the presbytery space, ending with a deep apse niche.
Five symbolic domes are sculpted on the vault, each made with two sculpted concentric circles. In the connection of the back wall with the vault there is a rectangular relief decorated with an elegant sawtooth graffiti. Between the central presbytery and the one on the right, on the vault, there are the remains of a cantilevered cross with expanded arms.
The left nave has a wall enlivened by eight very slender niches, ending in round arches and divided by columns with capitals. A large parabolic arch divides the hall from the presbytery, which had its templon ventilated by a central arch and two side windows, located respectively in correspondence with the apse and two large niches. Another partition separated the left presbytery from the central one.
Regarding the frescoes of this church, on the wall of the left nave are depicted a Nursing Madonna and Saint Michael the Archangel (second half of the 13th century). On the front part of the first pillar between the central and left nave there is the palimpsest fresco of San Gregorio (second half of the 13th century) and of an older Anonymous Saint. To the right of the entrance, on the counter-façade, there are the frescoes of San Giovanni Battista and San Benedetto and in front of the latter there is that of Santa Scolastica (14th century). Starting from the entrance, in the intrados between the first and second pillars, which separate the central nave from the right one, an Anonymous Saint and an anonymous Holy Bishop are depicted. In the intrados of the third pillar separating the two naves, a palimpsest with San Vito and Sant’Eustachio is represented.
Concerning the right nave, in correspondence with the altar, above on the left, there are seventeenth-century frescoes depicting the Holy Martyrs Lucia and Agatha with the iconographic attributes relating to their respective martyrs (chalice with eyes and pincers holding the torn breasts). Along the right wall in an upper register there are frescoes of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross (palimpsest) and of Saint Nicholas (late 13th – early 14th century) and below a beautiful fresco representing the Coronation of the Virgin Mary among Saints (late 13th – early 14th century). In this fresco, at the center of the scene, the crowned Christ holds a lily, symbol of celestial royalty, and in turn places the crown on the head of the Mother, the Queen of Heaven. Next to Christ there is the Baptist, and then Saint Peter, over whom a little angel hovers. Next to the Madonna there are a Holy Deacon (probably Lorenzo or Stefano) and a Holy Apostle. It is interesting to note the disposition of Christ, with the Virgin on our left and the Baptist on our right, as in the iconographic theme of the Déesis, which is considered by scholars as a compendium of the Last Judgment. This Greek name means: “prayer, intercession”. This is a very frequent iconographic theme in the Eastern context in churches intended for funerary purposes. Frontally, on the large pillar, there is a fresco of a Virgin with Child (16th century), which has, at the bottom, the votive offering depicting the client. On the counter-façade there is a seventeenth-century fresco of Saint Leonard of Limoges.
