Sassi di Matera

The tour starts with the group's gathering from Piazza Pascoli with an engaging historical / architectural and anthropological introduction of the Sassi with the background of the marvelous view over the Sasso Caveoso; The tour continues towards the Caveoso district in a continuous succession of ramps and stairs that constitute the roofs of the caves below; the wide field of view allows the eye to wander and give the eyes and the heart breathtaking panoramic views of the Sasso Caveoso and the Rione “alle Malve or“ Casalnuovo ”, the Murgico plateau and the imposing karst fracture that constitutes the canyon of Gravina di Matera. Arrived on the bottom of Via Bruno Buozzi the tour continues with a visit to a typically furnished cave-dwelling, which will allow us to have the perception of the "sad humanity" of this rural world and to understand how it lived in cohabitation with the animals until in the late fifties. Then we continue to visit the two rock churches, located on the "Rupe dell'Idris" and from which we can enjoy another suggestive panorama of the Sassi, Santa Maria dell 'Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone, the latter completely excavated in the rock and casket of Italo-Greek monasticism with precious iconographic evidence of the century X-XIII. As an alternative to the churches mentioned above, instead of these, the visit of the rock church of Santa Lucia alle Malve, located in the homonymous district, could be included in the tour, which represents the first example of Benedictine frequentation in Matera of the VIII century. d. C. and which houses precious testimonies of Byzantine frescoes dated from the 10th to the 13th century. After the Visit of the Rock Churches it will be possible to visit a workshop and handicraft laboratory of ceramics and papier-mâché where the typical objects of the Matera tradition and popular culture will be illustrated by the direct voice of the craftsman. Finally, after traveling through time and space from the Paleolithic to the present day, the tour ends with a small tasting of typical products in a specially recreated environment.

2 hours