The stone city: cave dwellings inhabited for 9,000 years, now Italy's most cinematic skyline.
The Sassi • Cave Churches • History's Comeback
Explore → Get Early AccessStone city light, bearable climbs
Overnight in a cave hotel is the move
~1.5h regional line or direct buses
IGP bread from ancient ovens
Matera is unlike anywhere: a canyon-side city of cave dwellings inhabited for 9,000 years, now candlelit hotels and restaurants carved in rock. At dusk, with the ravine glowing, it's Italy's most cinematic view.
Among the world's oldest continuously inhabited settlements, Matera's Sassi went from national shame, evacuated for poverty in the 1950s, to UNESCO site and European Capital of Culture 2019: history's best comeback arc.
Filmmakers use Matera as ancient Jerusalem (Pasolini, Gibson's Passion of the Christ, and a Bond opening all shot here) because no set could fake it. Many cave churches still hold Byzantine frescoes painted by monks.
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