Matera, the city of stones. 
Matera is located in Southern Italy and is quite close to where G is from. It’s one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and once you’re there, you can’t help but think “how can you even live in there?” The entire city is like built from one huge stone (which is, in fact, true) and the area is known to be one of the first ever human settlements in Italy. But if you dig a bit deeper, it has a rather darker history.
Because of the quite obvious harsh living conditions, the area was mostly occupied by poor pheasants and farmers. The area was a disgrace and considered as the “shame of Italy.” In the 1950s, they were all relocated, eventually leaving Matera empty and hollow. Forty to 50 years later, Italians started to return, filling up the “caves” and trying to make a living in the bleakest conditions and now there are more than 60,000 living there, mostly working in the tourism business, including hotels, restaurants and bars. It’s not the first time the past has saved the future in Italy, and like the now famous Pompeii, Matera is joining the many cities where the past literally meets the present and future, one stone at a time.
Thanks to its very ancient scenery, Matera has been, and still is, used as a setting for various films, most of them based on ancient Jerusalem. Prominent ones include “The Passion of Christ,” the more recent “Ben-Hur” and “Mary Magdalene,” and even “Wonder Woman.”
And if you know anything about Italians, you know that they don’t skip on the important things just for comfort or convenience. In these caves or cave-like homes, there are centuries-old churches, frescoes, baths, caverns and tunnels, proving the city is, in fact, an architectural marvel.
Look how little A looks here! What. This trip was about a year ago so she looks so different. Strolling around the city is a bit of a challenge because it’s all cobblestones so if you have a teeny baby, it may be a bit tricky. Tricky but doable.
- For more info, visit here.
- For a very interesting and quite touching read about Matera, its people and the history, read this.
All photos by rachelsanghee. November, 2017.