Matera

Discover Matera

The limestone of the Gravina canyon drops almost vertically, and the rock face is not bare — it is inhabited.

Doorways, carved stairways, and the dark openings of cave rooms layer the cliff in a pattern that no planned city produces.

The two flanking ravines, called grabiglioni, split the slope into distinct zones: Sasso Barisano to the north and Sasso Caveoso to the south, with the high ground of Civita — carrying the cathedral and the administrative core — wedged between them at 401 m (1,316 ft) above sea level.

Deciding what to see in Matera is, above all, a question of depth: how far down the rock you are willing to go, and how far back in time you are prepared to look.

Matera, Basilicata, Italy, stands at a population of 60,009 and holds the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site awarded in December 1993 for its twin cave districts — the Sassi — and the rupestrian churches cut into the far wall of the Gravina.

Visitors to Matera find a city that has been continuously occupied since at least the eighth millennium BC, one that served as a European Capital of Culture in 2019.

History of Matera

The settlement occupying the Gravina gorge predates written record by a considerable margin. The area was inhabited during the Palaeolithic period, potentially as far back as the tenth millennium BC, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied locations in the Italian peninsula. The formal urban structure, however, has a Roman anchor: the town was established by the Roman general Lucius Caecilius Metellus in 251 BC under the name Matheola.

In the centuries of Magna Graecia that preceded Roman consolidation, the territory maintained close commercial ties with the Greek colonies on the southern coast, functioning as a trade corridor that would persist through the Imperial period.

The medieval centuries brought a succession of ruling powers that left distinct administrative and architectural marks.

In AD 664 the Lombards conquered the city, incorporating it into the Duchy of Benevento.

The seventh and eighth centuries saw Benedictine and Basilian monastic communities carve their churches and meditation chambers directly into the calcarenite rock across the Gravina. Arab forces took the city after the fall of Bari in 840, and it was later reclaimed by Byzantine administration, whose judges and garrisons operated from Matera well into the eleventh century.

A cathedral dedicated to Saint Eustace was consecrated here in May 1082 — the same patron whose feast the city still marks on 20 September. On 25 January 982, the army of Otto II camped outside the walls during its march from Salerno toward Taranto. The Norman period began in 1042, when William Iron Arm was elected count of the city.

The early modern period introduced a sharper social geography.

On 1 October 1497 the city passed into the hands of Giancarlo Tramontano, whose oppressive rule ended violently when the population rebelled and killed Count Giovanni Carlo Tramontano in 1514. The Sassi — the cave districts that today define the city’s identity — were declared unfit for habitation at the turn of the twentieth century, and between 1952 and the 1970s the Italian government forcibly relocated all their residents to new housing on the Piano, the flat western extension of the city.

A law passed in 1986 reversed that policy and opened the Sassi to restoration and reoccupation.

In 1927 Matera became the capital of its own province.

The city’s designation as a European Capital of Culture for 2019, confirmed on 17 October 2014, completed a trajectory from forced evacuation to recognized urban heritage that took less than seventy years.

What to see in Matera, Basilicata: top attractions

The Sassi di Matera

The Sassi span approximately twelve vertical levels across a height of 380 m (1,247 ft), connected by a network of paths, stairways, and shared courtyards called vicinati. What the visitor walks through is not a ruin: it is a functioning urban fabric that grew continuously from prehistoric cave habitations into a complex of carved rooms, cisterns, and facades.

The calcareous rock, soft enough to cut but stable enough to support multiple floors, allowed structures to stack directly above one another — a street in one zone may run across the roof of the dwellings below.

The western approach to the city hides the Sassi entirely; the full scale of the settlement becomes visible only from the canyon rim.

Early morning, before tour groups arrive from the coast, gives the clearest view of the stratification.

Matera Cathedral

The cathedral stands on the Civita, the high promontory between the two Sassi zones, and its 52 m (171 ft) bell tower is the vertical reference point for the entire city. Built between 1268 and 1270 in the Apulian Romanesque style, the facade centres on a rose window divided by sixteen small columns; flanking the main portal stands a statue of the Madonna della Bruna accompanied by figures of Saints Peter and Paul.

The dedication to Santa Maria della Bruna dates to 1389.

Inside, the Latin-cross plan with nave and two aisles carries mainly Baroque decorative work from the eighteenth century, but a fourteenth-century Byzantine fresco depicting the Last Judgement was discovered during more recent restoration work.

The Comune di Matera lists the cathedral as one of the city’s primary cultural assets.

San Pietro Caveoso and San Pietro Barisano

Two churches dedicated to the Apostle Peter stand in the respective Sassi districts: San Pietro Caveoso in the southern Sasso Caveoso, and San Pietro Barisano in the northern Sasso Barisano. San Pietro Barisano underwent a major conservation project funded by American Express and carried out by the World Monuments Fund, which listed Matera’s rupestrian churches in its 1998 World Monuments Watch.

During that restoration, the main altar and interior frescoes were cleaned, and missing sections of mouldings and decorative reliefs were reconstructed using photographic archives and surviving fragments.

The simpler cave churches across the ravine — some reduced to a single altar and a weathered fresco — represent the monastic tradition of the Basilian and Benedictine communities that colonised these cliffs from the seventh century onward.

The Gravina Canyon and the Rupestrian Churches

The Gravina river canyon forms the physical and geological boundary between the hill country of Basilicata to the southwest and the Murgia plateau of Apulia to the northeast.

It was the canyon’s western limestone face that first attracted cave-dwellers and later monks, who carved entire complexes of underground chambers into the rock on the far side of the gorge, away from the inhabited Sassi. These rupestrian churches, cut into the calcarenite, are found across this wider zone and extend into the neighbouring region of Apulia.

They were included alongside the Sassi in UNESCO’s World Heritage designation of December 1993.

Reaching many of them requires descending into the ravine on foot; the terrain is steep and uneven, and appropriate footwear is necessary regardless of season. Visitors exploring Chiaromonte, a hill village in the southern part of Basilicata, encounter comparable rupestrian landscape features in the region’s broader geological context.

Castello Tramontano

The Castello Tramontano sits at the convergence point where the two grabiglioni — the streams that divide the Sassi districts — originate before descending toward the canyon.

The fortification is named for Giancarlo Tramontano, the count to whom the city was sold on 1 October 1497, and whose son Giovanni Carlo was killed by the population in the rebellion of 1514. The castle was never completed; construction halted with the count’s death, and today the structure remains in a state of partial ruin.

Its position on the high ground makes it a useful orientation point for understanding the topography of the Sassi below.

The unfinished walls and exposed construction phases make the medieval building sequence legible in a way that a restored monument rarely allows.

Local food and typical products of Matera

The food culture of the Matera area reflects the province’s position at the intersection of two distinct landscapes: the calcareous hills of Basilicata and the flatter grain-growing terrain of the Murgia plateau to the northeast.

This dual geography produced a kitchen built primarily on cereals, legumes, and sheep farming, with influences from the successive cultural presences — Byzantine, Norman, Aragonese — that governed the city across the medieval centuries. The peasant population that inhabited the Sassi until the forced relocations of the 1950s ate what the land and animals of the Gravina hinterland produced, and those ingredients have remained central to the province’s table.

Bread holds a specific place in Matera’s culinary identity. Pane di Matera is produced from durum wheat semolina, shaped into a form locally called cornetto or alto, with a thick golden crust and a dense, slightly irregular yellow crumb.

It is baked in wood-fired stone ovens and keeps well for several days, a quality that made it practical for rural households with limited access to daily markets.

Crapiata is a traditional legume and cereal soup, historically prepared on 1 August using the surplus grains and pulses of the harvest — wheat, chickpeas, broad beans, lentils, and dried corn — simmered together with minimal seasoning.

Peperoni cruschi, thin-fleshed dried sweet peppers from the Senise variety, are fried briefly in olive oil until they turn crisp and are served as a garnish over pasta or eaten alone as a dry snack. The texture is closer to a cracker than a cooked vegetable. Agnello al forno, oven-roasted lamb with potatoes and wild herbs, draws directly on the sheep-farming tradition of the Lucanian interior.

The province produces several items with certified geographic recognition. Olive oil from the Matera area, particularly varieties based on the Maiatica and Ogliarola cultivars, is part of the broader Basilicata oil tradition.

Pecorino cheeses produced from the milk of sheep grazing on the plateau’s pastures represent a pastoral continuity that extends across the entire region.

Visitors interested in tracing these products to their rural production contexts can reach the agricultural hinterland within 30 km (18.6 mi) of the city center, where smaller producers operate family-run farms.

The local market in Matera runs on weekday mornings and is the most practical setting for purchasing seasonal produce, dried legumes, and local cheeses directly from provincial suppliers.

The period from September through November corresponds both to the grape and olive harvest and to the availability of locally pressed oil, making it the most productive season for food-focused visitors. Several agriturismi — farm-stay operations with on-site restaurants — operate within the province and serve fixed menus based on what the farm produces in a given week.

Festivals, events and traditions of Matera

The central festival of Matera’s civic calendar is the Festa della Madonna della Bruna, held on 2 July in honour of the city’s patron.

The celebration involves a formal procession in which a decorated cart carrying the image of the Madonna is pulled through the streets of the city. At the end of the procession, the cart is ritually torn apart by the crowd — a tradition documented over several centuries and considered an integral part of the festival’s structure rather than a disruption of it.

The night ends with a fireworks display over the Gravina canyon.

The cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria della Bruna since 1389, is the liturgical focus of the day.

The second patron saint, Eustachio (martire), is commemorated on 20 September, a date that corresponds to the original dedication of the cathedral of Saint Eustace consecrated in May 1082.

This feast draws a smaller public than the July celebration but maintains its liturgical observance. The designation of Matera as a European Capital of Culture in 2019 brought a significant expansion of the city’s events calendar that year, including concerts, art installations, and international cultural programming centred on the Sassi and the surrounding canyon landscape. The urban fabric of the cave districts served as the stage for much of that programming.

When to visit Matera, Italy and how to get there

The best time to visit Matera, Italy is the period from April to June and from September to October. Spring brings mild temperatures across the Basilicata hill country, and the canyon vegetation on the Gravina walls is at its fullest without the heat that July and August carry at 401 m (1,316 ft) elevation.

Autumn overlaps with the harvest season, which makes the local markets and farm operations more active.

July, while coinciding with the Madonna della Bruna festival on the 2nd, also marks the beginning of the most crowded and hottest weeks; visitors who prioritise the festival experience should book accommodation several months in advance.

Winter is quiet and occasionally cold, but the Sassi empty of tourist groups between December and February, which makes the topography easier to read without crowds.

Matera lies approximately 65 km (40.4 mi) from Taranto and around 230 km (143 mi) from Naples. From Rome, the distance by road is approximately 380 km (236 mi), making it feasible as an overnight stop rather than a strict day trip. For those travelling from the north, Bari — roughly 65 km (40.4 mi) to the northeast — is the most practical transit hub, served by high-speed rail connections from Milan, Rome, and Naples.

From Bari, Matera is reachable by the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane regional rail service, which runs between Bari Centrale and Matera Sud with a journey time of approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.

By car, the SS7 Appia and the SS99 provide the main road access from the Taranto and Bari directions respectively.

There is no motorway exit directly at Matera; the nearest access points are on the A14 Bologna–Taranto motorway, with the Taranto or Bari Sud exits followed by provincial roads. International visitors should note that English is not widely spoken in smaller shops and local cafes; carrying a supply of euros in cash remains practical for markets, smaller restaurants, and rural stops.

Where to stay near Matera

The Sassi themselves now contain a range of hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, and cave-room rentals carved directly into the calcarenite — accommodation types that did not exist before the 1986 restoration law. Staying within the Sasso Barisano or Sasso Caveoso places guests at walking distance from the main churches and the canyon rim, though the paths between cave levels are steep and uneven.

The Piano — the flat modern section of the city to the west — holds conventional hotels with easier vehicle access.

For visitors exploring the broader province, agriturismo facilities in the surrounding countryside offer an alternative base, particularly useful for those combining Matera with a tour of the Basilicata interior.

Visitors passing through the southern reaches of the region can extend their itinerary to include Castelgrande, a smaller hill settlement that offers a contrasting scale to the urban complexity of the Sassi.

The wider circuit of Basilicata hill villages rewards those with several days available. Travellers moving through the region may also find it worth combining a visit to Matera with a stop at Abriola, a small Lucanian comune at higher elevation in the Apennine foothills, or at Cersosimo, which sits in the Sinni valley in the southern section of the province. Both represent the quieter agricultural landscape that surrounds Matera’s more internationally known cave city — and that puts the scale of what to see in Matera itself in clearer regional perspective.