Apparently, there is no city more tied to the land of Matera: literally dug into the tufa, close to the brink of a ravine marked by deep cuts, a place in the caves where humans began to live in prehistoric times and stopped the day before yesterday . From March 18 to 31, however, for once you can admire this eternal crib from the air thanks to the International Festival of Ballooning: 30 colorful media led by Italian and foreign crews will fly over the stones and the plateau of the Murgia, littered with rock churches.
In the same day the city, nominated European Capital of Culture for 2019, is committed to a project of light transport, with the introduction of electric vehicles, and another targeted accessibility of the historic center by the disabled. Meanwhile, on the streets and squares of the market is home to the neighborhoods of the Taste, tasty showcase for products Basilicata: Matera bread, olive oil maiatica batch of Ferrandina, wine Primitivo and Aglianico, caciocavallo cheese and Canestrato Moliterno, eggplant Red Round, and many others to be discovered along with a nice plate of pasta.
But it would be disrespectful to speak of such abundance without recalling the harsh conditions in which they poured most of the inhabitants of the town up to the ’50s, when Matera with its cave houses was declared a “national disgrace” and began the work of recovery Sassi. Today, to get an idea of the life of those years must visit the cave house of Vico Solitario. Or marvel at the sweetness of the Madonna nursing of the Saint Lucia Malve, rock church inhabited by several families in two aisles until 1953.
We are in the Caveoso, part of the city nearest the Murgia plateau, with exciting views that are perched high above the canyon. Among the steps used by Mel Gibson for his controversial Passion and a tourist sign handwritten, a sleepy cat and a forest of prickly pears, you get the rock churches of twins Mary and St. John dell’Idris Monterrone.
Must, following the road along the ravine, another pair of rock-hewn churches, Our Lady of Virtues and St. Nicholas of the Greeks, who with their play of empty and full, dark interior and exterior sunny, overlooking landscapes of contemporary sculptures archaic, invite a refreshing break. If you are not satisfied with sculptures, also visited the priest Musma, fascinating architectural complex with underground rooms, which these days is hosting an exhibition of Carla Accardi.
If you are looking for a beautiful view climbs up the austere St. Augustine, to find that is the city of a thousand churches and a single color, that of the tuff, which makes it so similar to Palestine from being used as a set for several directors at different times. During this festival, for example, will return to the city the Christ of the Gospel Pasolini, actor Henrique Irazoqui.
Bella also on the opposite side of the old town, the prospect from the square of the Romanesque Cathedral, whose facade is sighted from almost every part of the city and serves as a convenient reference point between lanes, arcades and stairways. Raggiungetelo inerpicandovi through the alleys of Stone Baresano, twin most elegant Caveoso, peering in craft shops that sell colored terracotta whistles shaped like roosters, they were pawned at every engagement, and the wealth of her husband’s measured by the size and ‘height of the decorations on the back of the rooster.
For a complete overview of the city, the first among those of our South, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, take the road to power and to be guided to the Crypt of Original Sin, which contains frescoes dating back to 500 years before Giotto , color and warmth impressive. It was the church and the tomb of the monks, then fold for centuries, finally threatened by a railway unfinished today visiting with clever lighting accompanied by enveloping Gregorian chants.
Finally, a pleasant return to reality, do not forget to also walk in civita, overlooking the Sassi with squares and buildings from the air almost Sicilian Baroque and noble. Go back to the golden age in which Matera became the seat of the royal court of Basilicata. Poverty and Nobility in a poignant embrace, from the top of a ball is sure to be even more exciting.