Sassi di Matera

Last week our rambles took us to Matera, home to the famous cave dwellings of the Sassi. "Sassi di Matera" literally means "stones of Matera" - the people here built their homes straight into naturally formed caves. The city cascades down the hillsides of a large gorge, with the roofs of many homes literally forming the streets above. It's fascinating.

Matera is one of the oldest cities in Italy, and one of the earliest human sites. Unfortunately, the area was poverty-stricken until recently, as a population boom in the 1900's had caused caves to be overcrowded, with large families, and the infant mortality rate was over 50%.

We saw one cave set up as a museum which showed the daily life of a family. There was only three openings into the cave: the door, a window above the door, and a small window in the kitchen. Not a whole lot of light. In one corner a donkey or cow was kept, roped off - and in the back cave was room for another animal and a laying hen. Small children (family sizes were usually around 6 children) slept in the bottom drawers of the dresser. A large loom was rented in wintertime to make clothing. (Photo Link on the Right for more photos).

In the 1950's, the government forcibly moved 30,000 of the residents, causing Matera to become a ghost town. Recently the government became more tourist-oriented, which brought more people back.

Water cistern

We also saw examples of water collection - rain water would run off of roofs and down gutters into underground cisterns. The porous rock provided some natural filtration. Under one church was a more recent cistern, where a huge reservoir was  built as a backup water supply for the residents.

With its history echoing in our ears, Matera is still an incredible place to visit. The houses and some churches spring straight up from the cliffsides, and the view down the gorge is an amazing panorama. We hiked down to the river below and up to into the national park on the other side, where we poked around into empty caves and ate our lunch looking across the canyon at the city.