Imagining Local Identity in Medieval Puglia: Wall Paintings in the Rock-Cut Churches of Casalrotto

This thesis examines the wall paintings in the rock-cut churches of Sant'Angelo, Santa Margherita, and San Nicola in the medieval village of Casalrotto in Puglia, Italy. This analysis seeks to understand these churches through their local particularities and idiosyncrasies in order to gain an understanding of their function and reveal elements of the religious identity in Casalrotto from the mid-twelfth to thirteenth-century. By employing a localizing methodology, this thesis discusses funerary and baptismal narratives within the iconographic programs of the three churches.