“Twenty years ago, we were the only ones who were interested in the Sassi,” says artist Mitarotonda. San Pietro Barisano was recently restored in a project by the World Monuments Fund, funded by American Express. There were also a large number of little superficial canals (rasole[what language is this?]) We’ve achieved our goal.” The biggest challenge, he says, is to ensure that the Sassi develop as a living community rather than a tourist enclave. The town’s prehistoric cave dwellings had by then become “dark holes” riddled with filth and disease, where barnyard animals were kept in dank corners, chickens ran across the dining room tables, and infant mortality rates were horrendous, thanks to rampant malaria, trachoma and dysentery. Known as la città sotterranea ("the underground city"), the Sassi and the park of the Rupestrian Churches were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Matera - evoluția demografică . One afternoon, I followed a trail that left the Sassi into the wild ravine and connected to paths once used by pagan shepherds. Matera város (közigazgatásilag comune) Olaszország Basilicata régiójában, Matera megyében, a Gravina di Matera partján.. A város nevezetessége a Sassi di Matera, a történelmi központot alkotó barlanglakásokból álló negyedek komplexuma, amely 1993 óta az UNESCO Világörökségének részét képezi. “That was our home.”. The first government archaeologists arrived in the early 1980s. Saskatchewan had the highest population of Matera families in 1911. “Then it’s just a museum.” Access to schools, hospitals and stores of the Piano remains difficult and there are bitter disputes over whether car traffic should be allowed on the Sassi’s only road. Advertising Notice Two other important churches in Matera, both dedicated to the Apostle Peter, are San Pietro Caveoso (in the Sasso Caveoso) and San Pietro Barisano (in the Sasso Barisano). Visits tend to be arranged by word of mouth. a Byzantine-style 14th-century fresco portraying the Last Judgement has been discovered. Later, when the population increased, many of these cisterns were turned into houses and other kinds of water-harvesting systems were realised. He pretended to clean his glasses as tears welled up in his eyes. So the statue of Madonna entered in the city on a triumphal wagon. “I had three brothers who all died there as infants,” he said. “Obviously, there was a truth there, the houses were unhealthy, conditions were terrible. In the southern Italian town of Matera, I followed a sinuous laneway down into a haunting district known as the Sassi (Italian for the “stones”), where some 1,500 cave dwellings honeycomb the flanks of a steep ravine. ¡Cuba Libre! Visitors to Matera can follow metal walkways through an enormous 16th-century cistern complex under the main plaza, with chambers some 50 feet deep and 240 feet long, which were discovered in 1991 and explored by scuba divers. Matera is not very well suited for wheelchairs or anything of the sort. A third hypothesis says that the name comes from the colour of the Virgin's face. The planner Antonio Nicoletti was puzzled that his own father, Domenico, had never visited the Sassi since his family was moved in 1956, when Domenico was 20—even though his new home was less than half a mile away. Mangia!” he insisted. Matera's bread is a local bread made with durum wheat, dating to the Kingdom of Naples, and typically featuring three incisions, symbolizing the Holy Trinity. I asked if his father might now consider revisiting his ancestral residence. When she arrived to the periphery of the city, she got off the wagon and asked farmer to take her message to the bishop. Levi singled out the Sassi for their “tragic beauty” and hallucinogenic aura of decay—“like a schoolboy’s idea of Dante’s Inferno,” he wrote. La Scaletta published its own book on the cave churches in 1966, and began lobbying for conservation funds, supported by the writer Carlo Levi, now a senator, who declared the Sassi to be an architectural treasure “on a par with the Grand Canal of Venice.” In the late 1970s, De Ruggieri purchased a ruined mansion on the fringe of the Sassi—“for the price of a cappuccino!” he jokes—and began restoring it, despite fears that it was dangerous. After the settlement of the Normans in Apulia, Matera was ruled by William Iron-Arm from 1043. or Hovudnæringa i byen har tradisjonelt vore jordbruk, men seint på 1990-talet vart produksjon av trukne møblar ei av dei viktigaste næringane. “You can find older cities in Mesopotamia, but they have not been occupied in modern times. Vote Now! The Madonna's sculpture is located in a case in the transept of the cathedral dedicated to her, where there is also a fresco that portrays her. Later it was capital of the province of Basilicata, a position it retained until 1806, when Joseph Bonaparte assigned it to Potenza. Today, these underground residences are being reinhabited by Italians, and staying in one of the Sassi’s cave hotels has become one of Europe’s most exotic new experiences. that fed pools and hanging gardens. The nearest airport is Bari Airport. Han er hovudstad i provinsen Matera i regionen Basilicata og har om lag 60 000 innbyggjarar. The whole city is stairs so be prepared for that; Many thanks to Palazzo Viceconte for hosting me during my time in Matera.