The city of Matera, the second provincial capital of Basilicata, lies 45 kilometers from the Ionian coast, on the Murge plateau, amidst tufa quarries and gravine. The latter are spectacular deep ravines, produced over thousands of years by the erosive action of the rivers on calcareous terrain.
The town is made up of several nuclei, which almost mark the different moments in its history, but it is universally known for the unique Sassi area, recognized in 1993 by UNESCO as one of the 395 places in the world that represent the "heritage of man" to be passed on to future generations. Matera, however, does not live of memories alone, it is a very busy city, looking to the future, with an intense economic and cultural life.
Man has been present on this site since the Paleolithic period, as has been demonstrated. In historic times, the first settlement developed on the spur of a gorge and was called Civitas (or city, an ensemble of citizens), in an easily defended position, in what is now the easternmost part of the town. Greeks and Romans had trading relations here, the Romans in particular, who passed the area with one of the routes of the Via Appia, without leaving more profound signs. Being a short distance from the sea, the town came under Byzantine influence and in the early Middle Ages saw the multiplication of hermitages, chapels and lauras, monastic organizations widespread in the East, especially among Basilian monks, which consisted in groups of hermits who lived separately in caves meeting to pray. This experience is behind the precious heritage of rock churches found in the area.
In political terms, Matera was long disputed by Byzantines, Lombards and Saracens before ending up in Norman hands, who made it a Regia town, part of the sovereign's personal possessions and thus directly under the crown, with extensive privileges. This explains the prosperity of the Norman and Swabian period, when the castle and the wall towers were built, whereas the growing population started to move into the caves outside the walls.
This new settlement, which in the 13th century started to be known as Sassi, occupied the two natural amphitheatres, Sasso Caveoso to the south and Sasso Barisano to the north, separated by the Civita spur and sloping down towards the gorge. The economic prosperity, which continued during Angevin rule, led to the construction of a new cathedral in the Civita and determined the growth of the Sassi and their organization in an increasingly complex and ingenious structure.
The Aragonese brought a period of feudalism which the town, forced to forgo the privileges previously granted, was reluctant to accept: the first lord, count Giancarlo Tramontane, appointed in 1497, was killed by the population in an uprising in 1514. Passed to the Orsini family, Matera managed to free itself in 1638. It remained part of the Apulian administrative division, Terra d'Otranto, until 1663, then became capital of the High Court of Basilicata and remained such until the Napoleonic period, in 1806, when Potenza was preferred over it.
In the period of its political-administrational centrality the town extended towards Sasso Barisano and the upland plain on the edge of the Sassi, with the new district called Piano, which developed around the pole of the Seminary, now Palazzo Lanfranchi, and which still maintains its original renaissance-baroque appearance. At the same time the new artistic taste caused them to add some baroque style to the oldest buildings. Starting from that time, because of overcrowding and the negligence of the authorities the Sassi started to deteriorate considerably, until they became a place of refuge for a very poor population reduced to subhuman living conditions.
The situation that had worsened increasingly over the centuries and had become intolerable from all points of view did not start to change until the end of the Second World War, when Carlo Levi raised an impassioned cry. The intellectual from Turin was well familiar with the region's isolation and poverty: in his book Cristo si e fermato a Eboli (Christ stopped at Eboli), in which he told of his life in forced residence in Basilicata in the years 1935-36, triggered a movement of opinion, a number of debates and initial State interest, with in 1952 the passing of a special law imposing the forced abandon of the Sassi (15 000 people were living in 3300 rooms, of which many caves dug into the tufa), the construction of new settlements and, at a second stage, the recovery of the environmental and artistic heritage.
Despite the inevitable controversy, this intervention not on a single monument but on an entire nucleus produced one extremely positive fact: the design of the new districts was entrusted to the best urban experts, who had a rare opportunity to design and construct entire districts out of nothing using the latest criteria. Thus were born La Martella, to the west, and Borgo Venusio, to the north of the town. The UNESCO in 1993 and new State intervention led to the implementation of the second stage, that of clearance and recovery. The city has several scenic spots but from one it is possible to perceive the succession of building phases: Piazza Giovanni Pascoli, dedicated to the poet who taught from 1882 to 1884 in the Duni high school then in Palazzo Lanfranchi. The area lost its identity with a debatable intervention made in the Fascist period that, however, provided a fascinating overall view.
This is in the heart of the Piano district and all the old part of the mediaeval area is on the left, with the Civita, the duomo bell-tower and the remains of the fortifications and walls, partially transformed into steps. The balcony of the square overlooks Sasso Caveoso, oppo site mount Errone, and the rock churches of Santa Maria di Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone.
The Sassi are the districts on the western side of the Gravina, covering an area of 36 hectares, divided between Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano. As has already been said, these were forcibly evacuated in 1952 and recovery commenced.
The long and complex work of clearance and restoration, still underway, have revealed how superficial was the totally negative judgment made of this urban reality in the Fifties. Before becoming totally dilapidated, the Sassi, apparently disorderly clusters of dwellings, were organized to sophisticated urban and technical criteria that would best exploit the difficult terrain and limited space. Now this complex is seen as an example of how to balance the needs of man and nature. Steps, passages, communal courtyards with a central well, masonry facades on rooms hewn in the rock, tiny homes and large mansions, terraces which are often the roofs of the buildings below, plumbing systems and reservoirs, hanging vegetable gardens and churches, nearly all dug into the rock, simulating architecture of domes, columns and apses hewn into the tufa: all this is part of the huge wealth that is the Sassi. In 1595 the chronicler Eustachio Verricelli as healthy and well protected presented this part of the town. Only with the modem phenomenon of migration to the towns (from the 17th century on) was the equilibrium lost.
Obviously the Sassi must be visited on foot, descending from Civita to explore a thousand comers and faces. They can also be reached from below, along a road used by cars and buses: this is the Sassi scenic road, which comprises Via Buozzi, Via Madonna delle Virtu and Via D'Addozio, opened in 1935 after reclamation of the existing drainage canal; access is from Piazza Pascoli, descending to Sasso Caveoso, or Via Pentasuglia, towards Sasso Barisano.
Events and Festivities
On 2nd July the celebration of the Madonna Della Bruna dates from 1389 and is bound to the propitiatory rites for a successful farming season and shepherding. The meaning of the word Bruna is uncertain: it apparently refers to the fertility of the soil, or, stemming from the mediaeval Latin, means "armored" and consequently is a figurative term for "protection". The origin of the festival is legendary. A peasant gave a lift on his cart to a young very poor and extremely beautiful woman who then proved to be the Madonna. At the town gates the Virgin Mary asked him to stop and sent the peasant to call the bishop. When he arrived with some followers he found just a statue on a magnificent cart, which he was unable to take to the cathedral because of the sudden arrival of soldiers with an order to confiscate it. The people threw themselves on the cart breaking it into pieces: everyone wanted at least a tiny fragment to conserve as a relic.
The celebrations are prepared much in advance because a wooden cart has to be painted and adorned with decorations, papier-mâché figures based on episodes from the Bible (the craftsmen come from families that have for centuries been specialized and work in a shed in the Picciannello district).
At dawn on 2nd July the first phase of the feast is held with the parade of shepherds who ask the Virgin Mary for protection before leaving for the pastures: today the shepherds are impersonated by young boys who carry the statue of the Virgin in a procession. At sunset the cart is solemnly paraded, drawn by eight mules and escorted by horsemen in front of the cathedral, circling the square three times. At this point the statue "descends" and is carried back into the church and the crowd is free to literally assail the cart, fighting for each piece of it until it is destroyed Those who manage to retrieve at least a small fragment will have a happy year. The celebrations end at night with fireworks.
On the 1st August the Crapiata festival commemorates the ancient customs of community life. It too is linked to the farming season and harvest, but above all to life in the Sassi and neighborhood, the typical urban solution of those districts. By tradition each family brought a handful of newly threshed wheat and one of pulses to the communal courtyard where they were cooked in a single large pot. Everyone then ate together, singing and dancing. On the last Sunday in September a solemn procession is held in honor of saints Cosma and Damiano, at the altar dedicated to them in the church of San Giovanni Battista. Between June and October the International Sculpture Exhibition is held in the rock churches of the Madonna delle Virtu and San Nicola dei Greci.
Gastronomy
Types of pasta include: orecchiette, similar to those of Puglia, strascinati, manate and fusilli. Various vegetable calzone, with hot pepper, raisins and black olives; boiled lampascioni in salad, boiled potatoes with diavolicchio (hot pepper); lamb and carcloncelli (mushrooms); pignata of mutton with layers of mutton, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and headcheese, all cooked in a clay pot. Eels alia cutturidd. Gnummaridd', special roulades with sheep and goat offal. Focaccia with cinnamon; tagliolini with sweet milk.
Matera