Italy · Basilicata
Matera, carved rather than built
A ravine city of cave houses that the Italian state once called a national disgrace and emptied by decree. Sixty years later it is one of the strangest, most moving places in Europe.
A city carved into the rock it was almost erased for · 40.67° N · 16.60° E
Matera does not look like anywhere else in Italy, and that is not a marketing line. The old town is carved directly into the soft limestone walls of a deep ravine, the Gravina, with houses, churches and stables hollowed out of the rock itself and stacked on top of one another in a tangle that reads from a distance as pure cliff face rather than architecture. People have been living in and around these caves since the Palaeolithic, which makes the Sassi — the two historic cave districts that give the city its name — a genuine contender for one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth, not a restored theme-park version of one.
The twist that makes Matera more than a geological curiosity is what happened to it in living memory. By the mid-20th century the Sassi had become a byword for Italian rural poverty — families, animals and open sewage sharing single-room caves with no electricity or running water, conditions a 1945 memoir by Carlo Levi helped turn into a national scandal. The government's answer, in the 1950s, was to declare the Sassi uninhabitable and forcibly relocate roughly fifteen thousand residents into new housing on the plateau above. The caves sat largely empty and crumbling for decades, officially a civic embarrassment, until restoration and a slow trickle of tourism in the 1980s and 90s began turning the same caves into some of the most sought-after hotel rooms in southern Italy. UNESCO listed the Sassi in 1993; Matera was European Capital of Culture in 2019.
That history is worth knowing before you arrive, because it changes what you are looking at. This isn't a list of the ten things to photograph before lunch. It is a guide to a city whose entire identity is a single reversal — from national shame to UNESCO showcase in two generations — and to the practical business of visiting a place that was, quite recently, considered unfit to live in.
The caseWhy Matera is worth the detour
Basilicata is the Italian region most visitors skip entirely, wedged between the more famous Puglia and Calabria with no coastline glamour to sell itself on, and Matera is the one unmissable reason to detour into it anyway. The Sassi are genuinely unlike anything else in the country — not a hill town with old stone houses, but an entire urban fabric dissolved into the cliff, where a street can run along the roof of the house below it and a church can be a cave with a facade bolted onto the rock. Walking it at dusk, when the floodlights come up gradually against the fading sky, is one of the most purely atmospheric experiences southern Italy offers.
The second reason is less visual and more uncomfortable, which is exactly why it's worth sitting with. The Sassi are a rare case of a UNESCO site whose beauty and its poverty are the same story told twice. Visiting the Casa Grotta museum houses, which preserve a cave interior exactly as a family lived in it with mule, chickens and all, in the same afternoon as a design hotel built into an identical cave next door, gives you a compressed lesson in how quickly "unliveable slum" and "heritage treasure" can swap places depending on who is doing the describing. Few places make that whiplash so legible.
The calendarWhen to go
April, May, June and September to mid-October are the sweet spots — warm days without the full Mediterranean heat, and manageable crowds on the narrow stepped lanes that genuinely cannot absorb a July midday crush. July and August bring brutal heat radiating off the pale tufo stone with almost no shade in the Sassi, plus the thickest tourist traffic of the year; if you must come in high summer, structure your days around the rock and save the afternoon for a pool or an air-conditioned museum.
Winter is Matera's most underrated season. The city empties out, hotel rates drop, and on the rare occasions a light dusting of snow settles on the cave roofs the whole ravine turns an almost otherworldly white-and-ochre. It's also the best season for the thing most visitors miss: seeing the Sassi lit up at night without fighting for a viewpoint. Whatever the season, build in at least one evening — the floodlit ravine after dark, best seen from Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio or the viewpoints across in the Murgia park, is arguably the single best reason to stay overnight rather than day-trip from Bari.
LogisticsGetting there and around
Matera has no major airport and no mainline train station in the historic centre, which keeps it blessedly uncrowded relative to its fame and mildly annoying to actually reach. The nearest airport is Bari Karol Wojtyła, about 65 kilometres away; from Bari, the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane narrow-gauge line runs directly to a small station right at the edge of the Sassi in around an hour and a half, and is by far the simplest option if you're coming without a car. Regular coaches also connect Matera to Bari, Potenza, Taranto and Naples. If you're driving in from Puglia or the Amalfi Coast, a car is genuinely useful for day trips, but it becomes a liability the moment you reach the old town itself.
Inside the Sassi, forget wheels entirely. The historic centre is a vertical maze of steps, ramps and lanes too narrow and too steep for cars, which is precisely what keeps it feeling intact rather than paved over for tour buses. Pack shoes with real grip — the smoothed, centuries-old stone steps are slick even in dry weather, and some of the best viewpoints involve a genuine climb. Park on the periphery (Via Saragat and the area near Piazza Vittorio Veneto have the main car parks) and walk in; most hotels will talk you through the closest option when you book, since several cave rooms are only reachable on foot down a flight of ancient steps, luggage trolley not included.
The tableWhat to actually eat
Basilicata's cooking is poor-kitchen food in the best sense — built on bread, legumes, grains and whatever the harsh, dry terrain would reliably produce, and it shows up on Matera's menus with real pride rather than apology. Pane di Matera, a dense, long-keeping sourdough loaf with IGP protection and a distinctive horn-shaped crust, is the city's edible signature; a proper slice, torn rather than cut, toasted and rubbed with oil, is reason enough to seek out a working bakery over a souvenir shop. Cialledda is the classic way to use the bread once it's gone stale — torn and tossed with tomato, onion, oil and sometimes a boiled egg, a dish born entirely of not wanting to waste anything.
Look for crapiata, a thick soup of mixed legumes and grains traditionally eaten on 1 August to mark the harvest, and peperoni cruschi — sweet peppers dried in the sun until they turn brittle, then flash-fried until they shatter like crisps, scattered over pasta or eaten straight as a bar snack. Orecchiette and other hand-shaped pastas cross the regional border from neighbouring Puglia freely, usually dressed simply with turnip tops or a slow-cooked meat ragù. For wine, Aglianico del Vulture, grown on volcanic soils further north in the region, is Basilicata's serious red and rarely leaves the south in any volume — drink it here while you can.
The mapThe Sassi, decoded
Matera's old town splits into two cave districts either side of a central ridge, and knowing which is which will save you a lot of confused wandering. Sasso Barisano, on the northern slope, is the more thoroughly restored and commercially developed half — this is where most of the design cave hotels, wine bars and restaurants cluster, and where the lanes feel curated rather than raw. Sasso Caveoso, on the southern slope facing the Murgia ravine directly, is steeper, quieter and rougher around the edges, with a higher concentration of the rock churches carved straight into the cliff and some genuinely derelict caves still waiting their turn for restoration — this is the half that looks most like the Matera of the relocation-era photographs.
Between them, along the ridge, sits Civita, the oldest core, dominated by the Duomo and the cluster of streets around it — a natural hinge point for getting your bearings before descending into either Sasso. Beyond the historic centre entirely is the Piano, Matera's ordinary modern town on the plateau above, built largely to house the families relocated out of the Sassi in the 1950s — unglamorous, genuinely lived-in, and useful to know about if you want a cheaper base with easy bus or taxi access down into the old town rather than paying cave-hotel prices to sleep inside the postcard.
Field intelligencePractical intelligence
Book the Sassi attractions you actually care about ahead of time where you can — the Casa Grotta museum houses and Palombaro Lungo cistern tours run on limited visitor numbers and can fill up on peak weekends, and a combined ticket covering several rock churches and museums is usually cheaper than paying at each door separately. Many of the rock churches operate on their own patchwork hours set by local custodians rather than a central authority, so treat any posted opening time as a strong suggestion rather than a guarantee and have a backup plan for the ones that matter most to you.
Bring a torch or use your phone's light inside the Casa Grotta houses and some of the smaller rock churches — electric lighting in these spaces is often deliberately minimal to preserve the atmosphere, and the detail in the carved stone rewards a closer look than ambient light allows. Mobile signal and wifi can be patchy at the bottom of the deepest lanes, which is either an inconvenience or the entire point depending on your mood. And budget real time for simply sitting still somewhere with a view across the ravine — the Sassi reward slow looking at changing light far more than they reward ticking off a list of named churches, and the viewpoints are free.
What to see & do
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Sasso Caveoso
The older, rawer of Matera's two cave districts, facing the Murgia ravine directly — steeper, quieter, and still showing patches of the derelict, pre-restoration Sassi alongside its rock churches.
Tip:Visit in late afternoon when the low sun hits the cliff face across the ravine and turns the whole district gold.
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Sasso Barisano
The more restored and commercially developed of the two Sassi, dense with cave hotels, wine bars and restaurants built into centuries-old rock dwellings.
Tip:Come for an evening drink on a terrace carved into the cliff — several bars here have genuinely spectacular ravine views with none of the queue.
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Matera Cathedral (Duomo di Matera)
A 13th-century Apulian Romanesque cathedral perched on the ridge of Civita at the highest point of the old town, with a bell tower visible from almost anywhere in the Sassi below.
Tip:The terrace just outside gives one of the best orientation views over both Sassi districts at once — a good first stop before you descend into either.
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Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario
A preserved cave-house museum showing exactly how a Sassi family lived before the 1950s relocation — a single room shared with the mule, with the straw bed, cookware and tools left as they were.
Tip:Go here before touring a cave hotel; seeing the lived reality first makes the restored version far more legible.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria de Idris
A rock church carved directly into the Monterrone outcrop in Sasso Caveoso, with a modest facade that gives no hint of the cave interior and faded frescoes behind it.
Tip:The short climb to the church doubles as one of the best photo points over the rooftops of Sasso Caveoso.
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Palombaro Lungo
A vast underground cistern beneath Piazza Vittorio Veneto, hand-carved over centuries to collect and store the city's water supply — walkways now let visitors walk through the cathedral-like chambers.
Tip:Book the short guided slot in advance; the cistern is only accessible on a scheduled tour and numbers are limited.
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Belvedere Murgia Timone & Parco della Murgia Materana
The nature park on the far side of the Gravina ravine, home to further rock-cut churches and the single best full-width view back across at the Sassi cliff face.
Tip:Drive or taxi across for sunset — the light on the Sassi from this side, with the whole ravine between you and the city, is the view every postcard is chasing.
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MUSMA (Museo della Scultura Contemporanea Matera)
A contemporary sculpture museum spread through the restored caves of Palazzo Pomarici, pairing modern works with the raw cut-stone rooms themselves.
Tip:The lower underground galleries, carved straight into the rock, are as much the exhibit as the sculpture inside them.
On the groundWhere things are
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Where to stayBase yourself well
Sasso Barisano
Best for first-timers who want a cave experience without the roughest edgesThe more polished, restaurant-and-bar-dense half of the old town, with Matera's highest concentration of design cave hotels — a comfortable, central base for first-timers.
A design cave hotel near Via Madonna delle Virtù
Look for a property that keeps the original tufo walls and vaulted ceilings exposed rather than plastering over the cave character.
€€€A small guesthouse carved into the upper Barisano lanes
Upper lanes mean a short uphill walk home but genuinely quieter nights than rooms right on the main route down.
€€Sasso Caveoso
Best for repeat visitors and anyone prioritising atmosphere over convenienceSteeper, quieter and closer to the raw, pre-restoration feel of the Sassi, with rock churches on the doorstep and ravine views from several terraces.
A cave room with a ravine-facing terrace in Caveoso
Confirm exactly how many steps separate the room from the nearest car park before booking — this district is the steepest in the old town.
€€€€Civita
Best for a central base with easy orientationThe ridge between the two Sassi, anchored by the Duomo — central to everything, with easy access down into either district and some of the best rooftop views in town.
A boutique hotel near the Duomo terrace
Rooms on the ravine side of Civita often share the cathedral terrace's panoramic view at a fraction of the walk.
€€€The Piano (the modern town)
Best for budget stays and travellers with a carMatera's ordinary plateau town beyond the Sassi, built largely to house families relocated from the caves in the 1950s — unglamorous, genuinely local, and noticeably cheaper.
A modern hotel on the edge of the Piano near Via Roma
A ten-minute walk or short taxi from the Sassi entrance, with far easier parking than anywhere in the old town.
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Beyond the cityWorthwhile day trips
- Alberobello
The trulli capital of Puglia, about ninety minutes away — whitewashed conical-roofed houses clustered on a hillside, a different but equally unlikely vernacular architecture to compare against Matera's caves.
- Craco
A fully abandoned medieval ghost town about forty minutes from Matera, evacuated after decades of landslides, now a strange, silent film set of a place — frequent location work includes Wonder Woman and No Time to Die's earlier Basilicata scenes.
- Gravina in Puglia
A smaller, lesser-known cousin of Matera with its own cave-cut quarter and a dramatic Roman-era bridge spanning its ravine — quieter, and genuinely worth the detour if you have the extra half day.
- Altamura
A bustling Puglian town built around another IGP-protected bread tradition, plus a cathedral and, on the edge of town, a museum devoted to the 1998 discovery of an intact Neanderthal skeleton nearby.
Before you goCommon questions
- How many days do you need in Matera?
- Two full days covers the essentials comfortably — one to explore Sasso Barisano and Civita, one for Sasso Caveoso and the viewpoints across in the Murgia park. A single overnight is enough to catch the floodlit evening view, which is worth protecting in your schedule over cramming in one more museum.
- Is it worth staying in a cave hotel in Matera?
- Yes, at least for one night. Sleeping inside a genuine restored cave, with the original rock walls and the particular cool, muffled quiet they create, is a different experience from viewing the Sassi as a day-tripper, and most of the city's best-reviewed properties are exactly this kind of conversion rather than standard hotel rooms with a theme.
- What's the difference between Sasso Barisano and Sasso Caveoso?
- Sasso Barisano, on the northern slope, is more thoroughly restored and busier with hotels, bars and restaurants. Sasso Caveoso, facing the ravine on the southern slope, is steeper, quieter and rawer, with more of the rock churches and more visible traces of the district's pre-restoration state.
- How do you get to Matera without a car?
- Fly into Bari Karol Wojtyła airport, then take the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane narrow-gauge train, which runs directly from Bari to a station at the edge of the Sassi in about ninety minutes. Regular coaches also connect Matera to Bari, Naples, Potenza and Taranto.
- Is Matera's old town accessible if you can't manage a lot of stairs?
- It's genuinely difficult. The Sassi are built on a steep ravine and navigated almost entirely by stepped lanes and ramps with no vehicle access, and many hotels and sights sit down flights of ancient stone steps. Civita and parts of upper Sasso Barisano are the gentlest option, but anyone with significant mobility constraints should check specific routes with their hotel before booking.
- What is the best time of year to visit Matera?
- April through June and September into mid-October give the best balance of warm weather and manageable crowds. July and August bring intense heat with little shade in the Sassi; winter is quiet and atmospheric, occasionally with a striking dusting of snow on the cave roofs.