By Isla Quinn
Houses cut into rock. That is the short version of Matera, a city on the right bank of the Gravina river in Basilicata, in southern Italy.
The two Sassi
Wikipedia says the rock-cut core of the city is called the Sassi and has around twelve levels across a height of 380 metres, with dwellings dug into limestone. It is split into two main zones, Sasso Barisano and Sasso Caveoso. A travel blog by Orna O’Reilly gives the same two names.
How old
The sources differ widely. Wikipedia says Matera is potentially one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world, with occupation believed to reach back to the Palaeolithic, the tenth millennium BC. The blog says families lived in the Sassi from Palaeolithic times right up to the 1950s and that the settlement is over 7,000 years old, which it calls the oldest human habitation in Italy. Both claims are stronger than most dated records allow, and the source for each is a general one, so we give the range and no single answer.
Leaving the Sassi
Wikipedia says that between 1952 and the 1970s the Italian government moved the Sassi’s inhabitants into new housing in the Piano district, as part of poverty-alleviation efforts. The blog says residents were relocated in the 1950s with UNESCO assistance. We have not checked the UNESCO claim and do not repeat it as fact. The blog adds that from the 1980s the caves were restored and turned into hotels, restaurants and homes.
World Heritage
Wikipedia says Matera was designated a World Heritage Site in December 1993 under cultural criteria iii, iv and v. It gives the site as 1,016 hectares, with a buffer zone of 4,365 hectares. The blog says the listing described Matera as the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region. The blog gives the wording without naming where it appears, so we have not checked it against the listing.
Cave churches
Wikipedia says the region holds a large number of rupestrian churches carved from the calcarenite rock, and that they are also found in neighbouring Apulia. The blog says the city has several cave churches and monasteries, with frescoes and religious art dating back centuries. We have no figure for the number or any dates, and none of the sources gives one.
Capital of Culture
Wikipedia says Matera was named a European Capital of Culture for 2019 on 17 October 2014. The blog, written in 2018, says the title brings worldwide attention and obliges the city to host cultural activities through the year.
On screen
Wikipedia says the Sassi have been widely used for biblical-era films, among them The Passion of the Christ in 2004 and No Time to Die in 2021. It gives the population as 60,403 on 1 January 2018.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia is a collaboratively edited reference work. The blog is a personal travel post, written before the 2019 year it describes. Neither is a heritage authority, and we could not open the UNESCO page, so the dates and areas above are second-hand.
What it means for a visit
Our reading is that Matera is a place defined by what happened to it in the last century: lived in, emptied and refilled. The sources give the dates for each stage, and they differ by a few years. Check what is open, what needs a ticket and how steep the walking is before you plan, since the sources do not say.
Where sources differ, we show each: the age of the settlement and the account of the move out of the Sassi. We list them in the check file.
Roam first. Shop later.