Municipality of Ruvo di Puglia, Former Church of S. Matteo and Benedictine Monastery 

The property was built on the foundations of the ancient medieval church dedicated to San Matteo. In the seventeenth century, the church was remodelled and enlarged, becaming the convent church of the nuns of San Benedetto. With the law of the 7 July 1866, on the suppression of ecclesiastical bodies and thereby confiscation of the properties, the monastery of San Matteo was acquired by the State. On March 8 1903, engineer-in-chief Egidio Boccuzzi signed a project for the redevelopment of the Church’s factories. The aforementioned resolution was not carried out because the Pio Sodalizio did not have the adequate means to meet such expenses.

Due to a poor urban management, as well as a state of abandonment and insufficient maintenance, in the summer of 1963, the building was demolished together with what remained of the monastic complex. Demolition works ended in 1964. 

Another building was built in the 1940s on the area of ​​the former church of San Matteo. Due to local structural failures and demolitions, the building needed urgent refurbishment works. In 1970 the Municipality started urgent recovery interventions. The interventions of the 1980s brought the edifice to its current state, now purposed for municipal offices. 

The current building, built on the foundations of the ancient Church of San Matteo, consists of a load-bearing masonry structure. It consists of nr. 2 floors above ground and a basement with external access, intended for storage and archive purposes.