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All Italy Matera Sassi di Matera

Sassi di Matera

People have been living in the cave houses on this Italian hillside since the Neolithic era.

Matera, Italy

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Looking out onto la Civita, the city center, from an ancient grotto in Sassi di Matera.   Maryn ve
Looking out onto la Civita, the city center, from an ancient grotto in Sassi di Matera.   Maryn ve
Sassi di Matera.   Palickap
Hillside cave dwellings in Sassi di Matera.   Joe Calhoun
Cave houses in Sassi di Matera.   vic15
Old houses in Sassi di Matera.   Marcok
Cave dwellings in Sassi di Matera.   patano
Sassi in miniature   rlaugen / Atlas Obscura User
Matera   rielderrinventhan / Atlas Obscura User
Matera   rielderrinventhan / Atlas Obscura User
View of the old city   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
Rooftop garden among the Sassi   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
Recreation of a traditional Sassi home   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
Belltower of the Church of Ss. Peter and Paul with ancient Sassi visible caves in the background   Joel Cusumano / Atlas Obscura User
  CorinaIoana / Atlas Obscura User
Sassi di Matera and la Civita.   Pava
Some of the most ancient caves in Sassi di Matera.   Paola Sucato
Old houses in Sassi di Matera.   Marcok
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About

The city center of Matera is flanked by the hillside Sassi, a peasant neighborhood that boasts an incredible assemblage of cave houses. They are considered the longest-occupied cave dwellings in the Earth's history, inhabited since prehistoric times right up until today. 

Until the 1950s, Matera was an embarrassment to Italy. As the fascists modernized the country, it remained woefully backward, without an effective plumbing system and riddled with poverty and disease. A resettlement plan evicted some of the Sassi di Matera residents from their old-fashioned cave houses in the poorest part of the city. Once the neighborhood was emptied out, the government planned to raze the hillside with dynamite.

However, when scholars investigated the city they came across sites like the Crypt of Original Sin, a secret 9th-century monastery. They realized just how old the settlement really was. The cave dwellings contained evidence that people have been continuously living in them since at least 7,000 BC.  

A 150,000-year-old hominid skeleton was found in one cave, along with Neolithic tools. The Ancient Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, and many others passed through here, leaving behind physical artifacts as well as cultural ones like the painted caves inhabited by unknown artists of ages past. Matera has been around as long as Fertile Crescent cities like Aleppo and Jerusalem, and so has been used as the set for films like The Passion of the Christ and Ben-Hur. 

Despite the government's efforts in the 20th century, the Sassi lifestyle hasn't changed in centuries. People moved back into the caves, which provide surprisingly cozy shelter. Social life occurs in the central courtyards, which also contain the communal ovens where people bake their bread.

Though Matera is now a tourist destination and a UNESCO World Heritage site, its hard-to-reach location makes it feel exclusive and secret. The neighborhood now has boutique hotels, restaurants, wineries, a jazz club, and a spa, but even its most affluent buildings are housed in caves. 

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Unesco Ancient Houses Eccentric Homes Caves Prehistoric Ecosystems Homes
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Molly McBride Jacobson, Blindcolour, rlaugen, rielderrinventhan...

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • Blindcolour
  • rlaugen
  • rielderrinventhan
  • Joel Cusumano
  • CorinaIoana

Published

April 21, 2017

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Sources
  • http://boredomtherapy.com/sassi-di-matera-cave-city/?as-source=src701aol&pas=1&bdk=a701aol
  • http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/a-cave-with-a-view
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassi_di_Matera
  • http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/670
  • http://www.neverendingvoyage.com/sassi-matera-italy/
Sassi di Matera
Sassi di Matera
Matera
Italy
40.665825, 16.611668
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