Matera
A city unlike any other in the world, carved out of white tuff and the blinding Mediterranean sun. The Matera of the ‘Sassi’ is a city carved out of the rock, formed by one of the most suggestive city environments in the world, classified by UNESCO as a legacy of humanity to be passed on to future generations.
Matera holiday highlights
- The Sassi, Barisano and Caveoso, set on the deep slopes of a valley, with cavernous meanders and underground labyrinths, hide relics of a remote past rich in culture and history. Caves and underground architecture are connected by steps carved out of the cliffs and are enclosed by dry-stone walls bounding small vegetable gardens, authentic stone gardens to be tilled, where the fertile strength of the vegetable world reveals its utmost potency. Wandering along the streets of this underground city you run into ancient places of worship, used to celebrate in the depths of the earth the nuptials of sun and stone.
- To this archaic city fabric, medieval monasticism brought new sap: countless hermitages, churches and hypogean basilicas rise on the sides of the ravine and in secondary valleys. Some crypts are decorated with frescoes that are often well conserved, many in Byzantine style.
