Sassi di Matera is unlike any other place – a city carved into the rock, layered with centuries of history, and still quietly alive. Once left to decay, it has been brought back to life, yet it keeps the traces of everything it has lived through.

Sassi di Matera, Southern Italy | Sassi di Matera, sud de l’Italie | Sassi di Matera, Süditalien | Sassi di Matera, sur de Italia | Sassi di Matera, sul da Itália | Sassi di Matera, Italia meridionale | Sassi di Matera, południowe Włochy | サッシ・ディ・マテーラ（南イタリア）(Sasshi di Matēra, Minami Itaria) | 마테라의 사씨, 남부 이탈리아 (Matera-ui Sassi, Nambu Itallia) | 意大利南部马泰拉的萨西 (Yìdàlì Nánbù Mǎtàilā de Sàxī) | ساسي دي ماتيرا، جنوب إيطاليا (Sāsī dī Mātīrā, Janūb Īṭāliyā)

In today’s post I want to take you to a truly stunning place you may well recognise from the big screen – Matera, a city in southern Italy’s Basilicata region. It’s been used as a film set for productions such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and the James Bond film No Time to Die.

Matera spreads across a limestone plateau above the deep Gravina gorge, carved over thousands of years by the river of the same name. On one side, rugged hills and rocky slopes frame the view; on the other, sun-drenched plains typical of southern Italy stretch away into the distance. While much of modern Matera consists of newer buildings, its soul and greatest treasure is its historic heart – a place that feels like stepping into another world.

Sassi di Matera. One of the Oldest Inhabited Sites Worldwide

The historic district of Sassi di Matera is among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements, with the first dwellings dating back as far as 9000 BC. Early settlers used natural caves in the soft limestone cliffs as shelters. The local limestone, known as tufo, is so soft that it can be carved with simple tools – perfect for hollowing out small cave homes.

As the community grew, people began joining single caves together, carving corridors and passages, enlarging chambers, and adding simple stone walls at the entrances to create façades. Typically, each of these early homes had a single front room and a series of chambers receding into the rock. The roof of one cave often became the terrace or floor of the next, creating the distinctive cascading look that still defines Matera today.

During the Middle Ages, as building techniques advanced, façades were reinforced and extended with dressed stone, and arches, vaults and retaining walls were added. Interiors were converted into proper homes, with extra floors and courtyards, and original rock walls were faced with stone to strengthen them. Over time, the line between built structure and natural cliff blurred – it’s often impossible to tell where the rock ends and the masonry begins. This organic process produced a unique architectural landscape: a labyrinth of rooms, passages and stairways embedded in the hillside.

A Water System Carved from Stone

One of the most extraordinary aspects of the Sassi is their historic water management system. Matera sits on a dry limestone plateau with no natural springs, so for centuries residents captured every drop of rain. Roofs and terraces were carved with grooves that channelled rainwater into rock-cut cisterns, reservoirs and underground canals. The settlement functioned like a vast rain-collecting machine – water cascading from the upper levels down into lower tanks. The largest cisterns were supported by stone pillars and vaulted ceilings, resembling underground cathedrals, and could store enough water to last for months.

Ventilation and daylight were equally cleverly managed. Because many rooms extend deep into the rock, they were designed with ventilation shafts, skylights and small openings to let in fresh air and natural light. This stopped damp and smoke from building up and kept the air circulating constantly.

Believe it or not, there are countless articles in international water research literature that explore how this city managed to collect and store its water. What’s more, when you visit Matera, you can even join a guided tour that takes you inside and shows exactly how this ingenious system once worked.

From Poverty Shelter to World Heritage

Over the centuries, as building methods improved and new districts developed higher up the hill, many residents left their cave homes behind for more modern dwellings. By the mid-20th century, only the poorest lived in the Sassi, often in dire conditions.

After the Second World War, the area was severely overcrowded. Whole families lived with their livestock in damp caves without sanitation, running water or electricity. Conditions were so appalling that in the 1950s the Italian government declared the Sassi a national disgrace (la vergogna nazionale) and relocated their inhabitants to newly built housing on the city’s outskirts.

For decades the Sassi lay abandoned and crumbling, until restoration efforts began in the 1980s. Painstaking and costly, this process eventually paid off — and in 1993, the Sassi di Matera were awarded UNESCO World Heritage status as a unique example of continuous human settlement from prehistoric times to the present.

Today, many former cave dwellings have been transformed into boutique hotels, art galleries, restaurants and small museums showing what everyday life in these cave homes once looked like. Many retain their original layout but are now styled with minimalist design and luxurious furnishings – combining rough limestone walls with sleek modern décor. You can even spend the night in some of these hotels: from the outside they look like ordinary stone houses, but inside they reveal extraordinary cave interiors now infused with comfort and elegance.

At this point I need to add a bit of a personal touch. Matera, in a way, was simply lucky – after years of abandonment, it was brought back to life and turned into a UNESCO-listed gem. As a teenager, I spent a few years in a country in North Africa on the edge of the desert where people once lived in cave homes carved into the mountains. They were forced out and given modern blocks instead, but many never adapted. I still have black-and-white photos (unfortunately not suitable to be digitalised) of those homes from over forty years ago — and with the conflict and war there now, they’re unlikely to ever become the kind of place international travellers could safely visit, explore and truly experience.

Sasso Barisano, Sasso Caveoso and Civita

Matera’s historic heart is made up of three districts clinging to the same rocky slope. On one side is Sasso Barisano, on the other Sasso Caveoso, with Civita perched on the ridge between them, crowned by the city’s cathedral.

Sasso Barisano takes its name from nearby Bari, as it was historically the entrance to Matera from that direction. It has more buildings with conventional façades, narrow lanes, and even a road that cars can use. Sasso Caveoso lies on the opposite side of the ridge, lower down, and feels far more ancient – its dwellings are mostly carved directly into the rock, resembling the original cave homes. From Barisano you can’t even see this hidden district.

Between the two lies Civita, the rocky spine of the hill, topped by the cathedral which dominates the skyline and can be seen from miles around.

As we visited Matera, we came by car from Bari, so we naturally entered through Sasso Barisano. We didn’t have much time and we were travelling with a curious little two-year-old traveller, full of ambition yet still bound by her toddler limits. It was November, well after the main tourist season. Almost all houses and sites were closed, and the city felt still and hushed. And don’t be fooled by the fact that there’s no one in my photos — it was simply a time when the streets of Matera were completely empty.

We began our walk near the Church of Saint Augustine, perched on the edge of Sasso Barisano. From there we wound our way through the narrow lanes of Barisano, climbing ever higher until we reached Civita and the cathedral at its peak. We didn’t make it as far as Sasso Caveoso — that district lies lower down on the far side of the ridge and was beyond our reach this time.

Matera in Pictures

In photos below you’ll mostly see Sasso Barisano and Civita, but if you look closely at the rocks across the gorge — and beneath the Church of Saint Augustine — you’ll spot openings in the cliff that look like the entrances to the most ancient and primitive cave dwellings.

The Sassi di Matera are not just picturesque houses revived for visitors — they are evidence of how human settlement adapts, collapses and gain new meaning over time. At times the attention can feel superficial, driven more by the setting than by the story behind it. Yet maybe that curiosity is not a bad thing. Even if we start by simply admiring how striking it looks, it can lead us to something deeper – to understanding how people once lived here, and how much history still echoes through these stones.