6 Matera Hotels Inside the Sassi

The Sassi of Matera are two districts of houses cut into a limestone ravine, and people have lived in them more or less continuously for something in the order of nine thousand years. It is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world.

It is also the site of one of modern Italy's most uncomfortable episodes, and any honest article about staying here has to say so.

What happened in 1952

By the 1940s the Sassi held around fifteen thousand people in caves without running water, sewerage or electricity. Families shared single chambers with their animals. Infant mortality was catastrophic and malaria was endemic.

Carlo Levi described it in Christ Stopped at Eboli in 1945, the book was read nationally, and the Sassi became known as la vergogna nazionale — the national shame. In 1952 the Italian government passed a law and forcibly cleared the districts, rehousing the entire population in new estates on the plateau above.

The caves stood empty for thirty years. From the 1980s artists and small businesses began moving back, UNESCO listed the site in 1993, and restoration accelerated. Matera was European Capital of Culture in 2019.

So the hotels here occupy dwellings that were emptied by state order within living memory, and some of the people rehoused are still alive. The good properties acknowledge this. It does not make staying wrong, and it does mean the place is not simply a novelty to be photographed.

The two Sassi and the town above

Sasso Caveoso, the southern district, is the rawer one: less restored, steeper, with the rock churches and the ravine below.

Sasso Barisano, the northern district, is the more developed half, with most of the hotels and restaurants.

The Civita, the rock spur between them, holds the cathedral.

The Piano, the town on the plateau above, is ordinary modern Matera where most people actually live.

Across the ravine, the Murgia plateau is a park of more than a hundred rock churches cut and frescoed by Byzantine monks, and the view back at the Sassi from there at dusk is the reason to walk over.

The six below are grouped by district.

Sasso Caveoso

The rawer southern half.

Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita occupies eighteen caves on the ravine edge restored with almost nothing added: no televisions, candles rather than lamps, original troughs and niches left as found. It is the most austere and the most honest property here.

Corte San Pietro sits in a group of restored cave dwellings around a courtyard with a small room count and views into the gorge.

Sasso Barisano

The northern half, with most of the restaurants.

Aquatio Cave Luxury Hotel & Spa occupies a set of caves with a spa built into the rock including a pool in a natural cistern, which is the most striking of the modern conversions.

Sant'Angelo Luxury Resort sits in a restored complex with rooms in caves and vaulted rooms above, a terrace and a good restaurant.

The Civita

The spur between the two districts, by the cathedral.

Palazzo Gattini occupies a seventeenth-century palazzo beside the cathedral with a spa, frescoed rooms and a terrace looking over both Sassi. It is the most comfortable hotel in Matera.

Palazzo Viceconte sits in a noble palazzo on the Civita with vaulted rooms, a courtyard and a rooftop over the rooftops of the caves.

What we have left off

The many small cave bed and breakfasts across both Sassi are excluded. There are a great many of them, they are inexpensive, and several are in buildings as interesting as the hotels. They are guest houses rather than hotels.

What to do

Walk across the ravine to the Murgia park and look back at the Sassi in the last hour of light. There is a path down and up, it takes about ninety minutes return, and it is the single best thing to do here.

See the rock churches: Santa Lucia alle Malve and Santa Maria de Idris in the Sassi, and the frescoed ones on the Murgia side.

Visit the Casa Grotta, a cave dwelling preserved as it was in 1952 with the furniture, the loom and the stall for the mule. It takes ten minutes and it makes sense of everything else.

Eat the bread, which has protected status, is made from local durum wheat and keeps for a week, and the orecchiette and cruschi peppers.

Note that Matera has stood in for Jerusalem in a long list of films, which is why parts of it may look oddly familiar.

Practical notes

Bari is the nearest airport, about an hour by road, with a train service that is slow. Naples is three hours, Rome four.

April, May, September and October are ideal. Summer is very hot on bare rock with little shade. Winter is cold and the Sassi in mist are remarkable.

The districts are steep, stepped and cobbled throughout. Luggage will be carried and mobility is a genuine consideration.

Questions people actually ask

Were people really evicted?

Yes, by law in 1952, about fifteen thousand of them, rehoused on the plateau. The caves stood empty for thirty years.

Which district?

Caveoso is rawer and steeper, Barisano more restored with the restaurants. Ten minutes apart on foot.

Is it accessible?

Not easily. Steps and cobbles everywhere, and most hotels involve a climb.

How many nights?

Two. One full day covers the Sassi, the churches and the Murgia walk.

If you only book one