Matera
The CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.
| Italy | Main pages | Places | Other links |
|
Abruzzo • Arezzo • Ascoli Piceno • Bassano del Grappa • Bergamo • Bologna • Cagliari • Ferrara • Florence • Maremma & Grosseto • Lazio • Livorno • Lombardia • Lucca • Matera • Milan • Napoli • Padova • Pescara • Pisa • Rome • Torino • Trento • Tuscany • Veneto • Venice • Verona • Vicenza |
Matera is a city located in the south of Italy, in the Region Basilicata. With more than 60.000 inhabitants is the second city in Basilicata. Few CouchSurfers live here (less than 10) so it's not so easy find an active CS member, and there's no event supported by CS at all. It's a quiet city, well known for the wonderful "Sassi", a primitive location with houses excavated in a very friable rock. The old Matera looks like Jerusalem 2000 years ago. It's a World Heritage site and one of Southern Italy's more important attraction.
Places to see
- SASSI
It is one of the most intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region. The first inhabited zone dates from the Palaeolithic, while later settlements illustrate a number of significant stages in human history. It's like a giant cave where hoiuses are built in its walls. The Typical house presents an exterior wall, and all the interior rooms are excavated in the rock, that in this region is called "Tufo" and is very friable. What looks like a 20 square meters small house from the outside, once inside can be a huge 1,000 square meters palace. Till 1950 Sassi where still live, with people living in it. In the smallest houses, there was a main room where animals and people lived all together (Animals were the only great richness of people, together with agricultural earnings). Since the houses are built in the rock, on their roof there are roads, gardens or other houses, and when you walk, it happens to come upon chimneys because, without realizing it, you are walking on the roof of a house. Unfortunately, the Sassi soon became overcrowded as the population grew fast in the last two centuries. Many problems like overpopulation, lack of water and efficient sewing system, domestic hygiene and ventilation problems: in this houses obviously there were no windows. Now many houses and churches have been restored, and new restaurants and hotels are opening, everyone different from each other, but everyone unique.
