Matera

As the years pass, the city continues to inspire wonder and stand out for its landscape, considered by many to be enchanting. Matera, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, has been described as unique in the world for its configuration and its contrasting landscapes. The Sasso Barisano, facing northwest on the edge of the cliff, the heart of the old city, is the richest in sculpted portals and friezes that conceal its subterranean heart. The Sasso Caveoso, facing south, is laid out like a Roman amphitheater, with cave dwellings descending in steps, and perhaps takes its name from the quarries and classical theaters. At the center is the Civita, a rocky spur that separates the two Sassi, atop which sits the Basilica Cathedral.
It is the city of caves, of entrenched villages, of peasant houses carved into the rock, of over 120 rock churches with Byzantine frescoes, and of large Romanesque-Apulian and Baroque churches, including the Rock Church of the Holy Spirit, the Church of San Domenico, and the Church of San Giovanni Battista, as well as of important noble palaces. It is a city that geologically resembles ancient Jerusalem and Cappadocia. It has been a destination for many peoples and their masterpieces, but continues to be a destination for great actors and directors who find Matera a suitable location for filming their films. A place inhabited since time immemorial, where it is easy to retrace the history of man from the Paleolithic to the present day, from the Neolithic villages to the vast urban fabric of the Civilization and the Sassi, where man has managed to utilize the scarce resources of the land without destroying it, but integrating with it.