Uncovering Matera’s history

We land at Bari a little late, but passport control is nothing more than a cursory glance and a nod so we are soon out and on the next bus to Matera, passing endless square miles of olive groves as we cross from Puglia to Basilicata.

It’s 34 degrees as we leave the bus and head off with backpacks through quaint streets and piazzas to be greeted at the door of our apartment. Tonio lets us into our home, a beautifully renovated property in Sassi, the balcony opening up to the most amazing view across the tiled rooftops scaling the hillside to Sassi Caveoso. Stone coloured ancient houses, blending into ornate churches, grand staircases leading to narrow streets and the campanile of the cathedral at its pinnacle, this is a city to explore.

What a fascinating history Matera has. One of the oldest inhabited cities of the entire world, Matera’s position in the deep south of Italy means that it saw the worst of the poverty historically associated with these parts. The city sits above a deep gorge, built into the steep sides as it takes a meandering course through the rocky hillsides. Its inhabitants, amongst the poorest peoples in Europe, built homes in to the rock and moved into the many caves.

They lived in squalor and abject poverty, hidden from the world and ignored by the Government many miles away in Rome, so much so that by the 1950s the city was tarred with the epithet “the shame of Italy”. Slowly, upon the eventual intervention of Rome, the people were moved, sometimes forcibly, out of their hovels as Italy determined to rid itself of its shame. 

Then, in 1964, the first of a number of movies was shot here, and Italy woke up to the fact that this ancient city with its glorious panoramas should be a source of pride, not shame.

The transformation is now complete, the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and in 2019 is indeed the European City of Culture. The result is a stunning example of reclaimed heritage. Many of the extraordinarily built cave dwellings, known as “sassi”, are now open to the public. We are on a mission to uncover its story over the next few days.