Matera

Spring (April to June) and autumn (September and October) are the best times to visit. Days are warm and good for walking the steep Sassi and hiking the gorge. July and August are hot, and the stone streets and the open Murgia have little shade. Winter is cool and quiet.

The biggest event of the year is the Festa della Bruna on 2 July, the feast of Matera's patron saint. Book accommodation early if you want to be there.

• Sassi di Matera are the reason to come. Give yourself at least a full day to wander the two cave districts, Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano, with their stairways, rock houses and small churches.
• Matera Cathedral crowns the Civita hill between the two Sassi. The 13th-century Romanesque church has a richly decorated interior, and the square in front gives wide views over the cave districts.
• Madonna de Idris e San Giovanni in Monterrone sits on a rock outcrop in the middle of Sasso Caveoso. A short passage leads to an older crypt with medieval frescoes.
• Casa Grotta nei Sassi is a furnished cave home that shows how families lived in the Sassi before they were moved out, often sharing one room with their animals.
• Palombaro Lungo is a huge 19th-century water cistern under Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Its vaulted chamber is more than 15 m high.
• Belvedere di Murgia Timone is the classic view of Matera, across the gorge on the Murgia plateau. Rock churches and a Neolithic village site are close by. Access is by park ticket.
• Musma shows modern sculpture in a 16th-century palace and its rock-cut underground rooms in Sasso Caveoso.
• Palazzo Lanfranchi holds the art collections of Matera's national museum. The highlight is the paintings of Carlo Levi, including his large Lucania '61 panels.
• Cripta del Peccato Originale is a rock church outside the city with 8th–9th-century frescoes, often called the "Sistine Chapel" of rock art. Visits must be booked, and you need a car to get there.

These are things you can only do in Matera.

• Trail 406: Hike across the gorge. The path starts at Porta Pistola in Sasso Caveoso, drops into the Gravina, crosses a suspended footbridge, and climbs up to the Murgia plateau. It takes about two hours. The trail needs a park ticket and proper walking shoes.
• Watch the Sassi light up at dusk. As evening falls, thousands of lights come on across the cave districts. The viewpoints by the cathedral square and at Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio are good places to watch.
• Sleep in a cave. Many hotels and guesthouses in the Sassi are set in restored cave rooms with vaulted stone ceilings.
• Festa della Bruna: On the evening of 2 July, mules pull a decorated papier-mâché cart carrying the Madonna's statue through the town. Once the statue is taken out, the crowd tears the cart apart and keeps the pieces for luck. Fireworks over the gorge end the night.

Matera is a good base for a few day trips. Public transport outside the city is limited, so a car makes most of these much easier.

• Altamura — about 25 minutes by car, or by FAL train. An Apulian town known for its Romanesque cathedral and its bread.
• Gravina in Puglia — about 35 minutes by car. A town on the edge of a deep ravine, crossed by a tall stone bridge.
• Metaponto — about 45–50 minutes by car. Ruins of a Greek colony, including the Tavole Palatine temple columns, and long sandy beaches on the Ionian Sea.
• Craco — about 55 minutes by car. A medieval hilltop town abandoned after landslides. You can visit only on a guided tour.
• Alberobello — about 1 hour 15 minutes by car. Famous for its white, cone-roofed trulli houses, a UNESCO site.
• Polignano a Mare — about 1 hour 15 minutes by car. A white town on cliffs above the Adriatic, with a small beach in a rocky cove.
• Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa — about 1.5 hours by car. Two villages wedged among the sharp peaks of the Lucanian Dolomites. In summer a long zip line, the Volo dell'Angelo, links them.

Matera sits in Basilicata, right on the border with Apulia. Many visitors combine the two.

• Gateway city: Bari has the nearest airport and an old town worth a day of its own.
• Apulia's classic towns: Alberobello for its trulli, Polignano a Mare for its cliffs and sea, and Ostuni, the hilltop "white town".

Matera has no mainline Trenitalia station. Most visitors arrive through Bari, about 65 km away.

• By air: The nearest airport is Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport. Direct buses run from the airport to Matera several times a day and take about 1 hour 15 minutes. Buses arrive at the bus area near Matera Centrale station.
• By train: Ferrovie Appulo Lucane (FAL) runs a narrow-gauge line from Bari to Matera Centrale. The trip takes about 1.5–2 hours, and many trains need a change at Altamura. The FAL station in Bari is a separate building next to Bari Centrale. Buses replace trains during engineering works and on some days, so check the timetable first: Ferrovie Appulo Lucane.
• From Rome or Naples: Trenitalia sells combined train-and-bus tickets, with a bus for the last part. Long-distance coaches (FlixBus, Marino, Marozzi and others) also run direct to Matera.
• By car: From Bari, follow the main road via Altamura; the drive takes about an hour.

• On foot: The Sassi and the centre are compact and best seen on foot. Expect many steep, uneven stone steps, and wear shoes with good grip.
• Sassi bus: A small bus line runs through the Sassi from morning until late evening, about every 30 minutes. It is useful for saving the climb back up to the centre.
• To the Murgia: There is no public transport to the Murgia Timone visitor centre. Walk there on trail 406 or go by car or taxi. Visitor information for the park is on Parco della Murgia Materana.
• Cycling: Not practical in the Sassi, which are mostly stairs.

• Is a car worth it? Not for the city itself, which you see on foot. A car is very useful for the Murgia, the Cripta del Peccato Originale and day trips, where buses are rare.
• Restrictions: The Sassi are closed to general traffic and are a limited traffic zone (ZTL). Do not drive in unless your hotel has arranged access for your car.
• Parking: Use the public car parks around the centre, such as the one on Via Lanera, or the paid blue-line street spaces. You can pay with the EasyPark app.

Matera's cooking is simple country food built on bread, durum wheat and vegetables. Look for pane di Matera, a protected local bread made from durum wheat semolina, with a tall, mountain-like shape. Another local favourite is peperoni cruschi, sweet red peppers dried and fried until crunchy, often crumbled over pasta. In summer, try cialledda, a salad of stale bread, tomato, onion and cucumber.

The easiest place to eat is around Piazza Vittorio Veneto and the streets leading down into the Sassi. Many restaurants in the Sassi are set inside cave rooms, which makes dinner part of the visit. Book ahead for dinner in high season.

Matera is a very safe small city, and serious crime against tourists is rare. The main risks are physical. The polished limestone steps in the Sassi can be slippery, especially when wet, so wear shoes with good grip. In summer, the Sassi and the Murgia have little shade, so carry water, a hat and sun cream, and avoid long hikes in the middle of the day. Stay on marked paths on the Murgia, where the gorge edges are steep and unfenced in places.

People have lived in the caves of Matera since prehistoric times. In the Middle Ages, monks carved dozens of churches into the rock, many decorated with frescoes. You can see them today in Madonna de Idris e San Giovanni in Monterrone and in the rock churches scattered across the Murgia plateau.

Over the centuries the Sassi grew crowded and poor. Families lived in caves with no running water, often sharing them with animals, as Casa Grotta nei Sassi shows. After the Second World War, the writer Carlo Levi drew national attention to the poverty of the region. From 1952, the state moved most residents to new districts on the plateau, and the Sassi were left almost empty.

In 1986 a new law supported restoration, and people slowly began to return. In 1993 the Sassi and the Park of the Rock Churches became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2019 Matera was European Capital of Culture. Its unique look has also made it a popular film location, from The Passion of the Christ to the James Bond film No Time to Die.

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