Puglia 2013 Wine Tour… the town of Matera
Today we visited the ancient town of Matera, which was built on the side of a ravine called 'The Gravina' which was created by a river now reduced to a small stream. Many of the famous 'Sassi' dwellings are really only caves dug into the hillside made of the calcareous rock that characterizes much of the landscape of Basilicata and Puglia.
As the town expanded, new streets were often constructed on the rooftops of other houses and it is this 'layering' of the 'Sassi' houses that has created the extraordinary images for which Matera has become famous. Unesco called Matera "The most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region" - and made it a World Heritage Site in 1993. Fodor's Guide said of Matera: "Matera is the only place in the world where people can boast to be still living in the same houses of their ancestors of 9,000 years ago". Many of the inhabitants of Matera did live in unacceptable conditions which were described graphically by the Italian writer Carlo Levi in his book 'Christ Stopped at Eboli'. After the 2nd World War, the population of Matera grew to around 16,000 and hygenic conditions deteriorated rapidly. Prime Minister, Alcide de Gaspari visited Matera in 1950 and was horrified by what he saw. He was determined to improve living conditions and throughout the 1950s the Italian government forcibly evicted residents, relocating them to better housing in the modern part of the town. It was incredible walking through "residences" that, only recently in the past 70 years, served as dwellings.
e the tourist potential of the caves, and has begun a regeneration program with help from the European Union, the Italian government, UNESCO, and also from some Hollywood film producers. In 2003, Passion of the Christ was filmed here, and in 1985 King of David was also filmed, amongst numerous other films. What a day! Now off to some fantastic dinner at the property... tutto bene!