Matera

Matera is a chief town (of a province) in the region of Basilicata, in the south of Italy. Apart from an economy wich has traditionally been based on agriculture, in the late (19) 90's the major means of support of Matera and other cities around it (mainly in the region of [Puglia] is the production of draving-room furnitures.

At the beginning of the 21th century, the town has about 60000 people.

Matera is mostly famous in the world for its ancient town, the so-called "Sassi di Matera" (meaning "stones of Matera") which is a prehistorical (troglodyte) settlement, and is suspected to be one of the first human settings in italy. This ancient town is over a small canion, which has been made in the course of years by a small water stream, called "Gravina". There are many peculiaries that are unique for this town in Italy:

• The "Sassi" are houses digged into the tuff rock that characterizes Puglia and Basilicata. Many of these "houses" are really only caverns.

• The most strange and attractive: people still lives into the Sassi. Until the late (19) 80's this was considered a poor people habit, since these houses are mostly unlivable. But with the new millennium the local administration, becoming more tourism-oriented, has succeded in making the "Sassi" a nice site, and tuff houses are becoming more livable and attractive.

Note: many people in the past has believed that people only lives in the Sassi; perhaps it is better to point out that the main part of Matera's people live in the modern town.

• There is a great similarity with the prehistoric sites of Jerusalem, which are of the same prehistoric age.

A chapter on Matera, describing the really poor life of people in the south of Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century, can be found in the book "Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli" (Christ stopped at Eboli) by the italian writer "Carlo Levi"