Grotta di Santa Croce, Archaeological cave in Bisceglie, Italy

Grotta di Santa Croce opens 113 m above sea level on the eastern side of the Lama di Santa Croce, in the countryside of Bisceglie. Its natural mouth is 12 m wide and 11 m high; beyond a debris cone about 6 m tall, the cave runs over 100 m, with a first stretch about 60 m long widening into spaces 10 to 12 m wide and high. The vault carries thin calcareous draperies fringed with small stalactites.

Francesco Saverio Majellaro identified the cave as a Palaeolithic deposit in 1934 and reported it to the Apulian superintendency in 1937. He ran the first soundings between 7 October 1938 and 2 October 1940 with Luigi Cardini and Ciro Drago. Excavations led by Cardini from 1954 to 1958, funded by the Italian Institute of Palaeontology, the provincial tourist board and the Bisceglie council, brought to light a Neanderthal right femur on 25 June 1955, the first long bone of a palaeanthropus found in Italy. The University of Bari carried out research from 1970 to 1994.

The cave's name comes from a painting of Bisceglie's three patron saints and a large black cross above the entrance, of which few traces remain. Inside, red starburst marks are visible 14 meters from the entrance. A woven basket containing barley grains may indicate an offering, and earthenware vessels may have collected water dripping from the ceiling.

The cave opens at 113 m above sea level on the eastern side of the Lama di Santa Croce, in the Bisceglie countryside near the Matina degli Staffi area. The natural entrance is a 12 m wide, 11 m high mouth reached by crossing a debris cone about 6 m high. The Grotta del Finestrino lies about 300 m downstream on the right bank, reached by climbing over large boulders.

The Neanderthal right femur found here on 25 June 1955 was the first long bone of an early human ever recovered in Italy; it is kept at the Italian Institute of Human Palaeontology in Rome, while most other finds are in Bisceglie's civic museum.