Is Matera worth visiting? The city with 9,000 years of continuous habitation, the cave dwellings that were emptied by government decree in the 1950s as a national embarrassment and rediscovered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, the European Capital of Culture in 2019, and the most photographed city in southern Italy. Yes. Matera is worth visiting. The qualification: it requires more time than most visitors give it, it is significantly more expensive to sleep in than the rest of Basilicata, and the two hours between arriving and departing are barely enough to register what you're looking at. This guide tells you how to see Matera correctly.
How do you want to see it?
Matera · BasilicataCompare the same experience on GetYourGuide and Viator, save what you like to My Trip, share it, and book when you’re sure. Nearest to this page first.
The Sassi: What They Are and How to See Them
The sassi di Matera are two districts of cave dwellings. Sasso Caveoso (southern ravine) and Sasso Barisano (northern ravine), carved into and built on the two ravines (gravine) that cut through the plateau on which the modern city sits. The habitation is continuous from the Palaeolithic. The caves were inhabited by peasants, animals, and (in the churches) sacred communities simultaneously, the same cave might have humans sleeping in one section, a donkey and its feed in another, and a cistern in a third. This multi-use poverty was what the Italian government found unacceptable in the 1950s. What Carlo Levi called "the shame of Italy" in 1945 became the cultural heritage of Italy in 1993. The reversal is complete and the irony is permanent.
Is Matera Worth Visiting: tours & tickets
Compare guided tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips for Is Matera Worth Visiting.
See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.The Sasso Caveoso is rougher and more atmospheric than the Sasso Barisano. Most tourists visit the Barisano (which has more restaurants and boutique hotels). Visit the Caveoso. Walk the paths that descend into the ravine. Find the rupestrian churches (chiese rupestri) carved directly from the rock face with Byzantine frescoes on the walls. These are free to walk past and many are free to enter. The Cripta del Peccato Originale (8km outside the city, accessible by car, prenotazione obbligatoria, prenotare a criticadeipeccoriginale.it) contains 8th-century frescoes considered the finest rupestrian art in Italy. Don't skip it.
Questions: Is Matera Worth Visiting?
How much time do I need in Matera?
Minimum 2 days: day 1 for orientation (Sasso Barisano, the cathedral, the belvedere (panoramic viewpoint) viewpoints), day 2 for the Sasso Caveoso and the Cripta del Peccato Originale. Three days is better, the city reveals itself slowly and the third morning with the cave districts quieter feels completely different from the first afternoon. One day isn't enough. Two hours (the typical tour-bus allocation) is approximately the time needed to register that you are somewhere extraordinary, not enough to understand what that extraordinary thing is.
Is Matera expensive?
Cave hotels (the boutique hotels in converted cave dwellings in the sassi) are expensive. €150-400/night in summer. This is Rome and Florence pricing in a city of 60,000 people in Basilicata. The price reflects uniqueness rather than luxury. Sleeping in a cave carved by human hands 3,000 years ago is genuinely different from sleeping in a hotel. B&Bs and smaller accommodation in the sassi cost €80-130/night. Restaurants in the city are more expensive than the rest of Basilicata but cheaper than comparable tourist cities in the north. Street food (the peperoni cruschi, the dried sweet pepper of the Senise area, fried in oil, available in bags throughout the sassi) is inexpensive and extraordinary.
How do I get to Matera?
Matera has no direct train connection to the main Italian rail network. Options: FAL railway from Bari (1h30, €5, frequent departures), easiest and most common. Bus from Potenza (2h). Car from Bari (65km, 1h15). Car from Naples (230km, 2h30 via A3 and SS96). Car from Rome (380km, 4h via A1 and A16). The FAL train from Bari is the standard approach for visitors arriving by air to Puglia.
What is the Cripta del Peccato Originale?
The Crypt of Original Sin is an 8th-century cave church 8km southwest of Matera (accessible by car or taxi, verify current access). The interior cave contains a complete fresco cycle of this period. Adam and Eve, the Annunciation, the Prophets, in a condition and quality that rival the great Byzantine church frescoes of Cappadocia. The name is 20th-century (given by the scholar Raffaele Guarigli who rediscovered the crypt). Admission with guided tour only (book via cripta.it or through the Matera tourist office). Maximum 25 visitors per session, 45 minutes. This is the best single thing near Matera and the one most consistently skipped due to logistics and lack of awareness. Book first, then plan everything else around it.
Cenni Storici su Matera
La presenza umana nella zona di Matera è documentata dall'età del Paleolitico, le grotte naturali nella gravina erano rifugio umano prima che fossero adattate a abitazione. L'insediamento strutturato (non solo riparo ma organizzazione spaziale deliberata) è documentato dal Neolitico (circa 7.000 a.C.). I sassi attuali, le case-grotta con facciate costruite davanti all'ingresso naturale della caverna, il sistema di cisterne per la raccolta dell'acqua piovana, le chiese rupestri affrescate, sono il prodotto di migliaia di anni di adattamento progressivo allo stesso ambiente geologico. Matera è il documento architettonico più completo di come l'umanità ha progressivamente costruito una cultura urbana partendo da una condizione di sopravvivenza elementare. Nessuna altra città in Europa ha questa continuità temporale verificabile. Vedi anche: Basilicata · Puglia · Southern Italy.
