Matera is one of the oldest cities in the world whose territory preserves evidence of human settlements from the Paleolithic and without interruptions up to the present day. It represents an extraordinary page written by man through 10,000 years of history.
It's the city of the Sassi, the original urban core, developed from natural caves carved into the rock and then modeled in increasingly complex structures within two large natural amphitheaters which are the Sasso Caveoso and the Sasso Barisano.
“In 1993 UNESCO declared Sassi of Matera a World Heritage Site, is the 6th site in Italy in chronological order, the first in the south”.
The unique architecture of the Sassi tells of man's ability to adapt to the environment and the natural environment, masterfully using simple characteristics such as the constant temperature environments dug into the limestone rock of the same for the construction of houses above ground and the use of slopes for the control of water and meteorological events.
Huge labyrinths of houses dug into the tuff, alleys, stairways, open spaces that reserve continuous (and beautiful) surprises. Visiting the Sassi di Matera is like taking a journey into the past, where everything has remained almost the same. Ancient rupestrian environments dug into the rock above the Gravina, inhabited since prehistoric times. They symbolize the peasant and agricultural origins of the city and today, they are one of the most incredible testimonies in the world.