Matera
Perhaps there is no more superb landscape or panorama in Italy. The colors, the air of this land, the landscape combined in this way, reach straight to the soul.
Matera is not just the sea but also history, culture and good food.
Matera, a unique city of its kind, is the second largest city by population in Basilicata, it is also called “City of Stones” and “Underground City”. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 and the 2019 European Capital of Culture in 2014.
The uniqueness of Matera is centered above all in the oldest area, the name Città dei Sassi is due to the particular homes built close to the Gravina di Matera. In Matera we find the Sasso Barisano, the oldest part of the city, and the Sasso Caveoso where the cave-dwellings are located on staircases. The choice of this place has given the inhabitants a safe but not easy life over the centuries. In fact, it was necessary to guarantee the inhabitants an autonomy of water when the city was under siege. The efforts of the inhabitants therefore did not focus much on the construction of houses but paid attention above all to the construction of cisterns and water canalization systems.
In 1952, due to hygienic problems, 15,000 Materans moved to the new area of the city, abandoning the Sassi, but in 1986 a law was issued on the recovery of the ancient homes. Matera continued its magnificent path of awakening also with the 2004 film The Passion by Mel Gibson.
