Ancient Cave Dwellings of Matera

Fun Facts

• • After the mass evacuation in the nineteen fifties, the Sassi were effectively a ghost town for years before a grassroots movement of artists and historians began the long process of restoration.
• • During the sixteenth century, the population was so dense and the layout so vertical that a local chronicler noted the dead were buried above the living.
• • Many of the cave dwellings are vertically stacked, with the roof of one home often serving as the street or terrace for the house above.
• • Matera is widely considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the planet, with roots dating back to the Paleolithic era.
• • Monks and anchorites from the East carved elaborate rupestrian churches into the limestone, adorning them with Byzantine style frescoes that are still partially visible.
• • The Palombaro Lungo is a massive, cathedral sized underground water cistern located beneath the main square, constructed in the nineteenth century to manage local water resources.
• • The Sassi were famously used as a filming location for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ because of their striking resemblance to ancient Jerusalem.
• • The city was famously brought to international attention by author Carlo Levi in his memoir Christ Stopped at Eboli, which highlighted the extreme poverty of the region in the mid twentieth century.
• • The internal temperature of the cave dwellings remains naturally consistent throughout the year, effectively acting as an ancient form of climate control.
• • The term Sassi does not refer to a specific type of house but to the two distinct districts: Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano.