# Matera

Two districts of cave houses, rock-cut churches and cisterns dug into soft limestone, hanging above a ravine. People lived in them until the 1950s.

Fuente: https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera · Revisado: 2026-11-11

## Why did people live in caves?

Because the rock invited it. Matera sits on a soft calcarenite, the tufo, which can be cut with simple tools. There are traces of habitation from about nine thousand years ago. For centuries, each family dug inwards and used the extracted blocks to build the façade. Beneath the houses they cut cisterns and channels to collect rainwater, because there was no other.

That's how the two Sassi came about, the Caveoso and the Barisano. Over time they filled with poor people who lived with their animals in a single cave, without running water and with malaria. In 1952 a law ordered their rehabilitation and the State moved almost all their residents to new districts. The Sassi stayed empty until, from the late 1980s, they were restored. In 1993 they entered the World Heritage list together with the park of rock-cut churches opposite.

## How much time do I need?

A whole day and a night. The Sassi lit up at night are half the trip. With a second day you cross the ravine to the Murgia and see the city from the opposite side.

## How do I get there?

From Bari airport or station, on the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane train, which leaves from its own platforms at Bari Centrale. It takes between an hour and a half and two hours, sometimes with a change at Altamura. By car, an hour and a quarter from Bari. The Sassi are a limited traffic zone: park outside and walk down.

## Dónde está
- Zonas: Curious Places, Film locations
- Cerca: Itria Valley (a 61.1 km)

## Qué hacer
- **Walk Through the Sasso Caveoso and the Sasso Barisano** (3 h 30 · Without a pushchair · On your own · free): Matera's two cave-house districts, the Sasso Barisano and the Sasso Caveoso, are walked on foot and on your own, with no entry fee: they are public streets, stairs and squares. You pay only for what you visit inside, such as the rock churches or a furnished cave house. Allow three or four hours in daylight and come back at night, when the façades are lit.
What the Sassi are
Matera is dug into a soft calcarenite, tufa, which can be cut with simple tools. For centuries each family dug its house into the rock and used the block removed to build the façade; under the houses they opened cisterns to store rainwater. By the mid-20th century the Sassi were overcrowded, without running water and with malaria, and a law of 1952 moved almost all their residents to new districts. They stood empty for decades, were restored from the late 1980s and in 1993 entered the World Heritage list together with the park of rock churches opposite.
The walk step by step

Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Start in the square of the upper town. From its viewpoints you see the Barisano for the first time, and beneath your feet is the Palombaro Lungo, the great cistern.
Sasso Barisano. Go down the stairs to the district facing north, the most restored, with houses turned into hotels, workshops and restaurants. Look in at the rock church of San Pietro Barisano, which has an entry fee.
The Civita. Climb the spur that separates the two Sassi, crowned by the 13th-century Romanesque cathedral. Its cultural route, with the diocesan museum, has a separate ticket.
Sasso Caveoso. Go down to the southern district, more open to the ravine and more like it was. Here are the Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario and the crag of Santa Maria de Idris, one of the rock churches you can visit.
San Pietro Caveoso. End in the church square, at the edge of the Gravina, with the Murgia opposite. From here, on Via Madonna delle Virtù, is Porta Pistola, where trail 406 begins.

Without entering anywhere, the walk takes about two hours; with two or three visits, half a day.
What you pay for inside
The rock churches on the Oltre l'Arte circuit cost €4.50 for one, €8 for two and €10 for three; children up to age 10 enter free with their parents. There is a €25 ticket that adds up the three churches, the Vicinato a Pozzo, the cave house on Via Fiorentini, the cathedral route, the Purgatory exhibition and the Bread Museum. The Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario is separate, €8 for adults.
When to go
Spring and autumn. In July and August the stone gives back heat and at midday you cannot walk the stairs in the sun: set out first thing and return at dusk. In winter there are fewer people and the odd foggy day that leaves the Sassi almost unreal. From 2 November 2026 the circuit's churches open from 9:30 to 16:30, so at this time do the visits in the morning and leave the afternoon for strolling.
Come back at night: the lights on the façades are the other half of the visit, and the streets are quiet.
Getting there and parking
The Sassi are a limited traffic zone: you cannot enter by car. Park in the upper town and walk down (read the limited traffic zone page). If you arrive on the train from Bari, Matera Centrale station is ten minutes' walk from Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
With children, pushchairs and reduced mobility
The walk is a succession of stairs and cobbled slopes: no pushchair, yes baby carrier. Children enjoy the furnished cave house, with the high bed and the manger beside it, and the Palombaro cistern. With reduced mobility, the upper part of the city and the viewpoints at Piazza Vittorio Veneto and the Civita give the view without going down.
For food, the Panificio Cifarelli sells Matera bread to take away; if you want to sleep inside the Sassi, Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita occupies restored caves.
- **Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario** (30 min · Families · Adults €8; ages 11 to 18 €3; up to age 10 free): The answer to how people lived in the Sassi: a single cave, partly dug out and partly built, where the whole family slept, ate and worked alongside their animals. The Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario is furnished as in the first half of the 20th century and is toured in half an hour, with explanations in eleven languages.
What you see
The house is a single room. The furniture acts as walls: on one side, the hearth and kitchen; in the centre, a small table with a single big dish from which everyone ate; at the back, the high bed on two iron trestles, with boards and a mattress stuffed with maize leaves. Opposite the bed, the mule's manger. Behind a partition, a second stable with another manger, the hollow from which the stone was quarried and a circular pit for manure or straw. In the floor, the channel that carried rainwater to the cistern.
The ticket includes other spaces next to the house: the Neviera, the pit where pressed snow was stored to preserve food in summer; a natural cave, and the rock church of Sant'Agostino al Casalnuovo.
Why it matters
The families of the Sassi lived like this until the 1950s, when a law of 1952 moved them to new districts of the upper town. Seeing the mule's manger a couple of steps from the bed, with no natural light or running water, explains better than any text why the State emptied the Sassi and how they later became a World Heritage Site. It is the visit that gives meaning to the rest of the walk through the Sassi.
Opening hours

January to March and October to December: Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 18:00; Saturdays and Sundays until 19:00.
April to June and September: Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 19:00; weekends until 20:00.
July and August: every day from 9:00 to 20:30.

Last entry is 20 minutes before closing. Special hours on 2 July, the feast of the Madonna della Bruna, and on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Outside opening hours the visit can be arranged by giving one working day's notice.
Tickets
Fares in force since 4 April 2026:

Adults: €8.
Reduced: €5 for over-65s, university students, FAI members and groups with an authorised guide.
Ages 11 to 18 and schoolchildren: €3.
Children up to age 10: free, as are people with disabilities and residents of Matera.

No reservation is needed: you buy at the entrance. The explanation is in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Polish, Portuguese and Matera dialect.
Getting there
It is on Vico Solitario, in the Sasso Caveoso, next to Piazza San Pietro Caveoso. You get there on foot, going down through the Sassi from the upper town; the Sassi are a limited traffic zone and you cannot enter by car. From Piazza Vittorio Veneto you go down stairs through the Caveoso.
Do not confuse it with the cave house on Via Fiorentini, in the Barisano, which is another visit on the Oltre l'Arte circuit.
With children and accessibility
Children are surprised: the manger beside the bed, the single dish on the table, the kitchen in a corner. The visit is short, matched to their attention. The surrounding streets are stairs: come with a baby carrier, not a pushchair.
Combine it with Santa Maria de Idris and the rock churches, a few minutes away, and if you want to sleep nearby, the Sant'Angelo Luxury Resort is in the same Piazza San Pietro Caveoso.
- **Palombaro Lungo** (30 min · Families): Beneath Piazza Vittorio Veneto, the main square of the upper town, there is a cistern dug into the rock, 16 metres deep and about 50 long, able to store five million litres. It is toured on walkways, in a short visit that explains better than anything Matera's obsession with collecting and storing rainwater.
What you see and why it matters
In Matera water depended mainly on rain. That is why each house in the Sassi had its cistern and the city built other huge ones for common use. The Palombaro Lungo is the largest. It was dug in several phases from the 16th century, joining older caves and cisterns, and its last documented extension is from 1870. The walls are lined with cocciopesto, a plaster of crushed fired clay and lime that makes them waterproof.
When it was rediscovered, in 1991, it was still full of water. Today you walk on walkways between vaults and walls on which you can see the lines of the levels the water reached over time.
What the visit is like
You enter from Piazza Vittorio Veneto itself. The visit is short, about 30 minutes, and is guided in groups that leave at set times. The explanation tells how the system of channels that carried rainwater to the cistern worked.
Below it is cool and damp: in summer it is a relief; in winter bring a layer. The walkways are safe, but the floor may be wet.
Opening hours and tickets
The hours change with the season and the management does not publish its own website with updated fares that we could check. Ask at the entrance in the square or at Matera's tourist office for the day's visit times and the price, and arrive with time to spare in high season, when the groups fill up.
Getting there
Piazza Vittorio Veneto is the starting point of almost all walks through the Sassi: from its viewpoints you see the Sasso Barisano. If you arrive on the train from Bari, Matera Centrale station is ten minutes' walk away. By car, park in the upper town outside the limited traffic zone and arrive on foot.
With children and accessibility
It works very well with children: it is short, mysterious and easy to understand. There are stairs to go down to the level of the walkways, so it is not wheelchair-accessible, and a pushchair cannot go down: leave the pushchair upstairs and carry little ones in your arms or in a carrier.
How it fits into the day
Do it at the start, before going down into the Sassi. After seeing the cistern you understand the channels on the façades, the cisterns under the houses and the sense of the Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario, which has its own channel and cistern. If it rains, it is the perfect visit: you are underground and a step from the square's cafés.
- **Rock Churches of the Sassi** (1 h 30 · Everyone · One church €4.50; all three €10): In Matera they dug out not only houses but also churches, with naves, altars and walls painted in fresco, cut into the same soft rock of the Sassi. There are dozens spread across the two districts and the Murgia opposite. In the Sassi you visit three groups with a single ticket from the Oltre l'Arte circuit: one to three churches, between €4.50 and €10, in a good hour.
What you see in each

Madonna de Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone. The church of Idris occupies an isolated crag at the top of the Sasso Caveoso, the Monterrone, and can be seen from the whole district. Inside it connects with San Giovanni in Monterrone, older and entirely dug out, which keeps frescoes of different periods on its walls. It is the most spectacular because of its position: from the esplanade in front you have the Caveoso and the Gravina at your feet. It counts as one single visit.
Santa Lucia alle Malve. In the Caveoso, on the side facing the ravine. It is one of the oldest groups and keeps 14th-century frescoes, with scenes such as the Deposition, St Nicholas and the Coronation of the Virgin.
San Pietro Barisano. In the Sasso Barisano, with a façade built in front of the excavated part. Inside it is spacious, with several altars and, in the lower part, the spaces where the dead were left to dry before their bones were taken to the ossuary, a funerary rite that surprises.

Outside the circuit, on the Murgia, across the Gravina, there are more rock churches that depend on the park: San Falcione is included in the Murgia Timone ticket, and the Madonna delle Tre Porte opens during the visits the park organises.
Opening hours
From 2 November 2026:

Madonna de Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone, and Santa Lucia alle Malve: every day from 9:30 to 16:30, last entry at 15:45.
San Pietro Barisano: every day from 10:00 to 16:00, last entry at 15:45.

All close on 25 December and 2 July, the day of the feast of the Madonna della Bruna. In spring and summer the hours extend: check the Oltre l'Arte website before going.
Tickets and prices

One church: €4.50.
Two churches: €8.
Three churches: €10.
8-site ticket: €25, which adds up the three churches, the Vicinato a Pozzo, the cave house on Via Fiorentini, the cathedral route and the diocesan museum, the Purgatory exhibition and the Bread Museum. Reduced, €16.
Free: children up to age 10 accompanied by their parents.

There are reduced prices for people with disabilities, FAI members and groups. It is bought at the ticket offices of each church or on the website; online tickets are shown with the confirmation email and are not refunded. Oltre l'Arte also organises guided visits of the Sassi and of the Sasso Caveoso.
Getting there
All three are inside the Sassi, on foot. Idris and Santa Lucia are close to each other in the Caveoso, a few minutes from the Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario; San Pietro Barisano is in the other Sasso, to the north. The Sassi are a limited traffic zone: leave the car in the upper town.
How long and with whom
Each church takes 15 or 20 minutes. With all three and the walks between them, allow an hour and a half. If you are only going to see one, make it Idris with San Giovanni in Monterrone, for the position and the frescoes together.
With children it works if combined with the cave house; on their own, the churches interest teenagers more. There are stairs to reach all of them, especially Idris, at the top of its crag: they are not accessible by wheelchair or with a pushchair.
Inside the rock it is cool all year: bring a layer in summer. Do not touch the painted walls.
The churches fit into the walk through the Sassi, which links them with the rest of the district.
- **Trail 406 and the Suspension Footbridge over the Ravine** (2 h · 6 km · Experienced hikers · €10 from November to March; €15 from April to October): Trail 406 crosses on foot the ravine that separates Matera from the Murgia: it leaves from Porta Pistola, in the Sasso Caveoso, goes down to the bottom of the Gravina, crosses the stream by a suspension footbridge of about 70 metres and climbs to the plateau, with the caves and rock churches opposite the city. It is about 6 km and about two hours. Since 2026 it has its own ticket: €10 from November to March and €15 from April to October.
The route step by step

Porta Pistola. The trail begins on Via Madonna delle Virtù, at the foot of the Sasso Caveoso. Here is the park checkpoint, staffed since 2026, where the ticket is checked.
Descent to the Gravina. You go down a stone path with steps to the bottom of the ravine. The perspective changes: the Sassi are above you, hanging on the wall.
The suspension footbridge. You cross the Gravina stream by a bridge of about 70 metres suspended over the riverbed. Cross following the park staff's instructions.
Climb to the Murgia. On the other side you climb the slope, between dug-out caves and small rock churches. It is the most tiring stretch, with a gradient and direct sun.
The plateau. At the top you reach the Murgia Timone area, with the viewpoint over the Sassi, and continue to the Jazzo Gattini visitor centre, where the itinerary ends.

To return, retrace the path through the ravine: the visitor centre is on the plateau, far from the city on foot by road.
Tickets
Since 2026 access to the trail is paid and controlled by the park. The 406 ticket costs €15 from 1 April to 31 October and €10 from 1 November to 31 March, with reductions for some categories. It is different from the Murgia Timone ticket: see what each includes on the Murgia tickets page.
Difficulty
It is not technical, but it is demanding for anyone not used to it: a steep descent with uneven steps, the footbridge, and a continuous climb on the other side. The polished limestone is very slippery, especially when damp. With hiking footwear and good fitness it is a great morning; with smooth-soled trainers, no.
When to go
In spring and autumn, in the morning. In summer the bottom of the ravine and the climb to the Murgia have no shade and the stone stores heat: set out very early or do not do it. After heavy rain, ask at Porta Pistola before going down to the stream.
Water and what to bring
There are no fountains or facilities until the visitor centre. Bring at least a litre and a half of water per person, a cap, sun cream and something to eat. A walking pole helps on the descent.
With children or a dog
For teenagers used to walking it is an adventure: they love the suspension footbridge. With small children it is long and the descent has high steps; for them it is better to reach the viewpoint by car via Jazzo Gattini. It is not suitable for pushchairs.
Getting to Porta Pistola
On foot from the Sassi: go down through the Caveoso to Via Madonna delle Virtù, at the edge of the Gravina. You cannot arrive by car, because the Sassi are a limited traffic zone.
- **Murgia Timone Viewpoint** (1 h 30 · Families · €7 from November to March; €10 from April to October): The view of the Sassi from the other side, the one from the films: the two cave districts stacked above the Gravina ravine, with the cathedral at the top. The Murgia Timone viewpoint is on the plateau of the Murgia Materana Park, across the ravine. Since 2026 it is paid: €7 from November to March and €10 from April to October, with the shuttle to the viewpoint included.
What you see and why it matters
The viewpoint looks out over the edge of the Gravina right opposite the Sasso Caveoso. From here you understand the city at a glance: the stepped excavated façades, the rock churches, the Civita and the cathedral above, and the ravine cut sheer between them. At sunset the stone turns golden and then the lights of the Sassi come on.
The plateau you stand on has its own history. The Murgia park, with its rock churches, entered the World Heritage list in 1993 together with the Sassi. Around the viewpoint there are remains of a Neolithic settlement, with ditches, huts and Bronze Age tombs in small caves, and several churches dug into the rock, such as San Falcione or the Madonna delle Tre Porte. The ground is rock and low scrub, with almost no trees.
Tickets and what they include
The Murgia Timone ticket costs €10 from 1 April to 31 October and €7 from 1 November to 31 March. It includes the network of trails in the area, access to San Falcione, the services of the Jazzo Gattini visitor centre, the shuttle to the viewpoint and the toilets. There are reductions and free entry for some categories. The ticket office is at the visitor centre. Also read the Murgia tickets page.
The Madonna delle Tre Porte and some underground spaces are visited only with the park's guided activities.
Getting there
There are two ways:

By car, from the Murgia side. Go to the Jazzo Gattini visitor centre, on the plateau, which has a ticket office and parking. From there, the shuttle takes you to the viewpoint. It is the option for families and for anyone who does not want to go down into the ravine.
On foot, across the Gravina. Trail 406 leaves from Porta Pistola, in the Sasso Caveoso, goes down to the bottom of the ravine, crosses the suspension footbridge and climbs to the Murgia. It has its own ticket and is more demanding.

From 3 to 18 November 2026 trail 406 is closed for works from Porta Pistola to the footbridge. On those days the park is entered only via Jazzo Gattini.
When to go
At sunset, for the light on the city, and in the morning hours if you want to photograph the façades with the sun in front of them. In summer the plateau has no shade: avoid midday and bring water. In winter the plateau is open to the wind: bring a coat.
Check the visitor centre and shuttle timetable before going, especially if you want to stay for sunset: the park does not publish it in a fixed table for the whole year.
With children
It is a plan that works for families: with the shuttle there is no effort and children can peer into the caves and the Neolithic settlement. Keep an eye on them at the viewpoint: the edge of the Gravina is a drop. Always walk on the marked paths and walkways, which protect the archaeological remains.
Allow time
Between one and two hours: reaching the visitor centre, going up on the shuttle, the viewpoint, a rock church and the settlement. If you come on foot by the 406, add about two hours' walk.
For the rest of the day, return to the city and go down to the Sassi, which at night are seen from inside the way you have just seen them from outside.
- **James Bond's Matera, through the locations of No Time to Die** (2 h · No pushchairs; there are many steps · Self-guided · free): Matera was the great Italian location of No Time to Die, the one with Daniel Craig and Léa Seydoux: most of the filming in Italy was done in the two Sassi and in the Civita, with the motorbike jump and the chase through its streets. It is all out on the street, so you can do it on your own and without a ticket, with the same walk through the Sassi and a few detours.
What was filmed here

The Duomo square. At the top of the Civita, beside the cathedral. This is where Bond makes the motorbike jump in the chase. From the square's viewpoint you have the Sasso Barisano at your feet.
Piazza San Giovanni. Here Bond, trapped, answers by spinning the car right round.
The hotel balcony. The wooden terrace of the film's hotel was a set built for the shoot below one of the viewpoints over the Sassi.
The cemetery. The cemetery scene was filmed partly on the hill of the rock church of the Madonna delle Vergini.

What you see today is the city as it is, with no sign of the shoot. The locations work because Matera hardly changes: the same stairs, the same arches and the same pale stone as in the film.
How to do the walk
Start at Piazza San Giovanni, in the upper town, and go down towards the Civita and the Duomo square. From there, follow the Sassi walk towards the Sasso Caveoso. It is two hours without going into anything; if you want to see a cave house or a rock church inside, add the Casa Grotta or the rock churches, which charge admission.
By car, the bridge of the Gravina in Puglia Aqueduct, already in Apulia, is the one from the most vertiginous chase: in the film it was moved to Matera with digital effects. The stop at the guard's hut, after the bridge, was filmed in the Botromagno archaeological park, in Gravina itself.

## Dónde comer
- **Vitantonio Lombardo** (Restaurant, Matera (Sassi), €€€€). Qué pedir: the tasting menu.
- **Panificio Cifarelli** (Bakery, Matera, €). Qué pedir: a loaf of Matera bread and focaccia.

## As a family: A City of Caves to Explore

Children understand Matera in the cave house: the bed, the table and the mule beside it. What is hard is the stairs and the heat.

### What works best
The Casa Grotta, short and very clear

The Palombaro Lungo cistern, free for children

The Murgia Timone viewpoint with the shuttle

### Where to sleep
In the Sassi, to set out early and come back at night

### Where to eat
Bakery focaccia at midday, trattoria in the evening

### Keep in mind
No pushchair: stairs everywhere

In summer, a long break from eleven to five

Trail 406 is not for small children

### Qué hacer as a family
- Walk Through the Sasso Caveoso and the Sasso Barisano
- Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario
- Palombaro Lungo
- Murgia Timone Viewpoint

## With teenagers: The City from the Films, and a Suspension Bridge

Many recognise Matera from No Time to Die or The Passion of the Christ. Trail 406 gives them the adventure part.

### What works best
Crossing the ravine on the suspension footbridge of trail 406

Going down to the giant cistern beneath the square

Getting lost in the Sassi with the map and agreeing to meet at a viewpoint

### Where to sleep
In the Sassi, in a cave

### Where to eat
Focaccia and panzerotti to take away

### Keep in mind
The 406 is rated for experts: hiking footwear and water

Under-25s pay half in the Murgia

### Qué hacer with teenagers
- Walk Through the Sasso Caveoso and the Sasso Barisano
- Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario
- Palombaro Lungo
- Trail 406 and the Suspension Footbridge over the Ravine
- James Bond's Matera, through the locations of No Time to Die

## Consejos

### Go out early or at sunset
Between eleven and five, in summer, the sun bounces off the stone and groups fill the alleys.

### Sleep in the Sassi
A cave hotel is the way to stay on when the day trippers leave.

### Wear shoes with a grip
It's all polished stone steps, which are slippery.

### Buy Matera bread
The PGI bread, tall and with a yellow crumb, keeps for several days: it makes a good souvenir.

## Preguntas frecuentes

### Can you go with children?
Yes, but without a pushchair: the Sassi are all steps. A baby carrier for the little ones. Older children are impressed by the cave house and the giant cistern.

### Do you have to pay to enter the Sassi?
No. Walking around is free. You pay for the cave house, some rock-cut churches, the cistern and the Murgia.

### Can you see it in a day from Bari?
You can, but you lose the night and the first hour, which are the best. Better to stay one night.

### Where do I park?
Outside the Sassi, which are a limited traffic zone. Ask at your hotel: many have an arrangement with a car park.

### How much does trail 406 cost?
€15 from April to October and €10 from November to March. Free for children under 6 and half price for under 25s.