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The Town
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Divided into two sections - the Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano - the
sassi
district can be entered from a number of different points around the centre of town, some signposted, some not. The
Strada Panoramica dei Sassi
, newly built with an eye to tourism, weaves through both zones and is a useful reference point, but you need to leave this to penetrate the warren and its
chiese rupestri
or
rock-hewn churches
. One,
Santa Maria de Idris
, perched on the conical Monte Errone that rises in the midst of the
sassi
, has frescoes dating from the fourteenth century. Another, the tenth-century
Santa Lucia alle Malve
in the so-called Albanian quarter (settled by refugees in the fifteenth century), has Byzantine-style frescoes dating from 1250. Other churches have a more orthodox appearance but are worth a visit;
San Pietro Caveoso
, for example, at the centre of the Caveoso district (Santa Lucia alle Malve lies behind it), is rather over-zealously restored and has a wooden ceiling and frescoes. If you want to explore the
caves
and more
chiese rupestri
on the far side of the ravine, you can cross the river further up towards the Sasso Barisano, though you'd do well to take a supply of drinking water - the excursion is further than it looks - up to an hour if you don't stray off the track. To get the most out of the whole area equip yourself with an
itinerario turistico
and a map, both available from the tourist office
. Better still, for a commentary and access to parts of the
sassi
you might otherwise miss on your own, you can join a guided
tour
; the Nuovi Amici dei Sassi, at Piazza Sedile 20 (tel 0835.331.011), or Tour Service Matera, at Piazza Vittorio Veneto 42 (tel 0835.334.633), charge around L15,000/7.80 per person for groups of four or more; or negotiate with one of the freelancers on the spot, who ask around L15,000-30,000/7.80-15.60 according to the length of the tour and the size of your party.
The more animated face of the old town has its centre at Piazza Vittorio Veneto , a large and stately square which in the evening is cleared of traffic and given over to a long procession of shuffling promenaders. The materani take their evening passeggiata seriously, and the din of the crowds rising up out of this square can be like the noise from a stadium. Matera's modern quarters stretch out to the north and west of here, but most of the things worth seeing are along the Via San Biagio and Via del Corso. Winding off from the bottom end of the piazza, the narrow Via del Corso leads down to the seventeenth-century church of San Francesco d'Assisi , whose ornate Baroque style was superimposed on two older churches, traces of which, including some eleventh-century frescoes, can be visited through a passage in the third chapel on the left. In the main church are eight panels of a polyptych by Bartolomeo Vivarini, set above the altar. Behind San Francesco, on Piazza Sedile, the imposing structure on the right was formerly a convent, then the town hall, and is now a conservatory dedicated to the eighteenth-century composer Egidio Duni, a native of Matera who settled in Paris, where he was largely responsible for popularizing Neapolitan comic opera among the pre-revolutionary aristocracy. Via Duomo leads off to the right, a good place to view the sprawling sassi below. The Duomo , which effectively divides this area into two, was built in the late thirteenth century and retains a strong Apulian-Romanesque flavour. Between the figures of Peter and Paul on the facade is a sculpture of the patron of Matera, Madonna della Bruna. Her feast day, the Sagra di Santa Bruna, is celebrated on July 2, when her statue is carried in procession three times round the piazza before being stormed by the onlookers, who are allowed to break up the papier-mA?chA© float and carry off bits as mementos. At the back of the building you can see a recently recovered fresco from about 1270 showing scenes from the Last Judgement.
From Piazza San Francesco, continue down into Via RAdola to admire the elliptical facade of the
Chiesa del Purgatorio
, gruesomely decorated with skulls. A little further on is the essential
Museo RAdola
(Mon 2-8pm, Tues-Sun 9am-8pm, also summer Wed & Sat until 11pm; L5000/2.58), housed in the ex-monastery of Santa Chiara and containing an extensive selection of prehistoric and classical finds from the Matera area, including Bronze Age weaponry and beautifully decorated Greek plates and amphorae. A few metres on, at the end of Piazzetta Pascoli, the Palazzo Lanfranchi holds a
Pinacoteca
with an assortment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century paintings, but the real draw here is the
Centro Carlo Levi
(free), containing a good cross-section of Levi's vivid canvases, as well as the long mural,
Lucania
1961; annoyingly, the palazzo is currently only sporadically visitable, though this should change once restoration work is complete - check first at the tourist office.
Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Italy,
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