Editing Matera (section)

=== Religious traditions ===
[[File:Matera BW 2016-10-15 14-04-08 2.jpg|thumb|[[Matera Cathedral]]]]
 
The Feast of the Madonna della Bruna, held in Matera on 2 July each year, is notable for its religious procession featuring an ornamented chariot that will be pulled apart by spectators. The origins of the festival are not well known, because its story has changed while being handed down from generation to generation. One of these legends says that a woman asked a farmer to go up on his wagon to accompany her to Matera. When she arrived to the periphery of the city, she got off the wagon and asked farmer to take her message to the bishop. In this message she said she was Christ's mother. The bishop, the clergy, and the folk rushed to receive the Virgin, but they found a statue. So the statue of Madonna entered in the city on a triumphal wagon. Another legend talks about a destruction of the wagon: Saracens besiege Matera and the citizens, to protect the painting of Madonna, hid it on a little wagon. They then destroyed the wagon to keep the Saracens from taking the painting.<ref>{{cite book |last= Rota|first= Lorenzo|date= 2001|title= Matera : the History of a Town|location= Matera|publisher= Giannatelli|page= 342|isbn= 9788897906001}}</ref> 
 	
Different hypotheses are attributed to the name of ''Madonna della Bruna'': the first says that the noun derives from the Lombard high-medieval term ''brùnja'' (armor/protection of knights). So the name might mean ''Madonna of defense''. Another hypothesis is that the name comes from ''herbon'', a city of Giudea, where the Virgin went to visit her cousin Elisabetta. A third hypothesis says that the name comes from the colour of the Virgin's face. The profane insertions such as the ''navalis'' wagon and its violent destruction, along with the intimacy and the religious solemnity, suggest this festival shares roots with ancient traditions of other Mediterranean countries. For example, in Greek culture, wedding parties also celebrate with a triumphal wagon (''ships on wheels'' richly designed).<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.festadellabruna.it/?lang=en|title= The Feast of the Madonna della Bruna|author=<!--Not stated--> |date= 2018|website= Festa della Bruna|access-date=March 22, 2019 }}</ref> The Madonna's sculpture is located in a case in the transept of the cathedral dedicated to her, where there is also a fresco that portrays her. It dates back to the thirteenth century and it belongs to the Byzantine school.<ref>{{cite book |last= Morelli|first= Michele|date= 2006|title= La festa della Bruna|location= Matera|publisher= Adecom|isbn= 9788897906001}}</ref>