Italy Guide
Basilicata and Calabria
Matera
The town of MATERA, in the interior of Basilicata, dates from the Middle Ages when Byzantine and Benedictine monks built rock-hewn churches and monasteries into what are now called the Sassi – literally "stones" – an intricate series of terraced caves. Later, farmers, seeking safety from invasions, also settled in the Sassi, fashioning their homes, stables, and shops out of the rock, creating one of Italy's oddest townscapes and its most significant troglodyte settlement. Nowadays it's hard to picture the conditions that previously existed here; EU funds and private investments have poured in, and now the area has been cleaned up and repopulated with homes, B&Bs, hotels, restaurants and workshops. In 1993, the city and its grotto-filled outskirts were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in 2003 Mel Gibson filmed his controversial The Passion of the Christ here.
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