# Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario

What to do en Matera · Matera

Fuente: https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/things-to-do/casa-grotta · Revisado: 2026-11-11

- Desde: 8 € per person
- Duración: 30 min
- Para quién: Families

Furnished cave house in the Sasso Caveoso, with the bed, kitchen and stable in a single room; half an hour and €8 for adults.

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.

## Cómo llegar y contacto

- Web: https://www.casagrotta.it/
- Coordenadas: 40.6633, 16.6125

## Cerca de aquí

- [Sant'Angelo Luxury Resort](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/where-to-stay/sant-angelo-hotel), a 95 m
- [Rock Churches of the Sassi](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/things-to-do/rock-churches), a 98 m
- [Trail 406 and the Suspension Footbridge over the Ravine](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/things-to-do/trail-406), a 246 m
- [Walk Through the Sasso Caveoso and the Sasso Barisano](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/things-to-do/sassi), a 252 m
- [Vitantonio Lombardo](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/where-to-eat/vitantonio-lombardo), a 312 m
- [James Bond's Matera, through the locations of No Time to Die](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/things-to-do/matera-no-time-to-die-walk), a 424 m
- [Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/where-to-stay/sextantio-le-grotte-della-civita), a 434 m
- [Panificio Cifarelli](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera/where-to-eat/panificio-cifarelli), a 526 m

## Consejos

### Go before the rock churches
The house explains how people lived; afterwards the dug-out churches are better understood.

### Go in first thing
By mid-morning guided groups arrive and in a single room you notice.

### Look at the Neviera
It is included in the ticket and many people overlook it.

## Preguntas frecuentes

### How much is the Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario?
€8 for adults, €5 reduced and €3 for ages 11 to 18. Children up to age 10 do not pay.

### Do you have to book?
No. The ticket is bought at the door. You only need to give notice if you want to visit outside opening hours.

### How long does the visit last?
About half an hour, counting the Neviera, the natural cave and the church of Sant'Agostino al Casalnuovo.

Destino: [Matera](https://www.geocalia.com/en/italy/matera.md)