Sixty Years of 'The Gospel According to Matthew' – All the shooting locations
October 2, 1964, marked the theatrical release of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to Matthew which faithfully reproduced the life of Jesus from the Annunciation to the Resurrection. It included the episodes in between those events: his birth, the flight to Egypt to escape the massacre of the innocents, the trials in the desert, sermons to the disciples, miracles, his trial and death on the cross.
The film offers a human portrait of Christ, where traits of meekness alternate with moments of anger in the face of hypocrisy. A heartfelt film for which Pasolini chose non-professional actors and local extras, with the role of Christ played by the Catalan trade unionist Enrique Irazoqui. Many of the director’s acquaintances participated in the filming, as did his mother Susanna as the elderly Mary.
The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Venice Film Festival and in 1967 received three Oscar nominations (screenplay, costumes and soundtrack).
The Italian locations that recreated the Gospel setting
Matera and Lagopesole
Pasolini created the places of his The Gospel according to Matthew in southern Italy, whose landscape recalled the Middle Eastern landscape of 2000 years earlier. Galilee was created in a range of rocky environments in Calabria, Lazio, Sicily and Puglia, while Jerusalem was reborn in the Sassi of Matera, where the director set the passion, crucifixion and resurrection. Situated on two hills separated by a ravine, the Lucanian village of Barile (Potenza) became Bethlehem: four episodes from Jesus’ early childhood (the nativity, the adoration of the Magi, the massacre of the innocents, the flight into Egypt) were set in the caves dug out of the tuff rock hill complex known as Sheshe. The inner courtyard of Lagopesole Castle in Avigliano (Potenza) is where the Sanhedrin decreed his condemnation.
Gioia del Colle, Castel del Monte and Barletta
Filming in Puglia took place in a range of castles and farms in the Murgia area. In the north wing of Gioia del Colle Castle (Herod's palace), Salome dances for Herod and asks for the head of John the Baptist. Castel del Monte (Andria) was the setting for the expulsion from the Temple. At Barletta Castle, Pontius Pilate asks the crowd whether to release Jesus or Barabbas. Gravina di Ginosa, Manduria and the rocky environments of Massafra stood in for Palestine. Pasolini also used the little house and the jazzo (animal paddock) in the countryside of Santeramo in Colle, in the Sabatolla district, for some shots (the Annunciation and the Beatitudes before entering Jerusalem).
Scenes in Sicily and Lazio
Christ’s forty days of temptation in the desert were mainly set in the Etna valley, Sicily, although the Church of San Bonaventura in Monterano, a ghost town in the province of Rome, provided the setting for one of Satan’s temptations, as did the Church of St. Mary Major and Basilica of St. Peter (its unmistakable rose window clearly seen) in Tuscania (Viterbo) for another. The baptism on the River Jordan was filmed at Fosso Castello waterfalls in Chia, a hamlet of Soriano nel Cimino (Viterbo). During his wandering, Jesus heals lepers who live in a tower: the scene was filmed at the Caldane tower in Parco di Tor Caldara near Anzio (Rome).
Le Castella
In Calabria, Paolini chose the badlands of Cutro (Crotone) for their desert-like conformation and the beach of Castella, a hamlet of Isola di Capo Rizzuto (Crotone) with the Aragonese fortress in the background, for other scenes set on the River Jordan.