Continue to introduce you the most interesting places that I was able to see in the South of Italy.
Matera is a town in Basilicata in Italy, famous worldwide for the historic quarters of the Sassi, where cave homes, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Matera – the ancient city, the first settlements existed in the Neolithic period and even then the relationship with the rocks were very close.
The core of the city originated on the opposite slopes of the river valley, called the cleft, the Gravina di Matera.
During the Magna Grecia Matera was a Greek city, the center of which was Civita. Today here stands the Cathedral, built in the XIII century.
In Roman times the city was fortified with a wall and numerous caves and rocky massifs of steel to use for the construction of village homes, thus was born the quarters of the Sassi.
Building homes in caves was due to the climatic conditions and the need to protect, but also to make better use of natural and geographical aspects of the site.
Street cave city were narrow with many steps and ladders.
In 1623, Matera became the capital of Basilicata, which it remained until 1806, then Napoleon Bonaparte moved the capital to the Potenza. It was the best period for mater.
The locals had great difficulty with water. So they spent their energy not to build houses, and to dig into the limestone channels and trenches to collect water and a series of different tanks.
After the second world war, he published a book of Carlo Levi’s “Christ stopped at Eboli”, in which Levi wrote about unbearable living conditions in the Sassi di Matera.
He was exiled to southern Italy for anti-fascist statements, having arrived in Matera, he was horrified by what he saw. In the 1930s half the population lived in caves, for reasons of heat many of the houses were open on the floor lay dogs, sheep, goats and pigs. “Most families had only one cave, and in it slept all together – men, women, children jivotnye”.
Carlo Levi saw the Mother at a time when the population has grown to a size limit. The place was not enough and over the caves were built more floors. Hanging gardens is no longer planted, and the huge family lived in unsanitary conditions, without sanitation, without observing basic hygiene rules.
In 1952 the authorities decided to resettle the residents in new blocks, freeing the cave houses. At that time, the Sassi were about 15 thousand people. Many of them didn’t want to leave from their native homes and came back, then the authorities walled up the entrances to the caves with cement.
In 1993 Sassi di Matera (Sasso Caveoso, Sasso Barisano and Civita) included in the world heritage list of UNESCO.
After the Sassi di Matera became a desert, they have been the backdrop to many films. Here was pier Paolo Pasolini, “the gospel of Matthew” in 1964, and Mel Gibson’s “the passion of the Christ” in 2004.
A scene from the movie the passion of the Christ.
The city has preserved the house-caves, some of them can be visited.In the middle of the room stands a high bed, on which slept the whole family. Under the bed is a pot, pan, and other utensils, and it was taken out during the day. Here a stall for animals and a dining table. Kitchenette in a separate small room, another room was used as a household utility room.
The light in the house was falling from a small window above. The temperature in the houses was almost constant 15 degrees, tuff, in which were arranged the dwellings worked as climate control.
Now the town was slowly populated the State allocates 40 % of the amount to repair the premises.
There are souvenir shops.
Until recently, the Sassi were inhabited by normal, and, moreover, the poorest (of the ancient house of a man isn’t the most comfortable place to stay), the Italians — now most of them moved to new Matera and the Sassi is inhabited mostly by tourists. Thanks to the fantastic project Le Grotte della Civita in cave city you can spend not only the day but and night, and then a week in unrelated homes-the Sassi caves is arranged eighteen guestrooms and public area is a unique hotel located in a medieval Church.
As cave and ground of the Church, Sassi (their number in this, in fact, the tiny town is coming to two hundred) are interesting not only for its architecture, but the frescoes, many of which belong to the XI—XII centuries.
Sources.
http://travel-sky.ru/sassi-di-matera-peschernyj-gorod-v-italii.html
http://www.biancoloto.com/matera/matera.html
