Matera, Italy Photo Gallery
Getting ready for Festa della Madonna Bruna on July 2nd. A statue of the Virgin makes its way through the streets on a large papier-mâché float of a chariot. At the end of the procession, the Virgin safely placed in her church, the crowd famously destroys the chariot and takes pieces home for good luck.
Chiesa del Purgatorio(Church of Purgatory)-this 18th-century baroque church is curiously adorned with numerous skulls, skeletons, and other death-related decor.
This church was built between 1725 and 1747, and like other “purgatory churches,” was constructed as a place for people to pray for the souls trapped in limbo between heaven and hell.
The wooden door is divided into 36 squares. It’s decorated with four skulls of nobles and clergymen at the top.
Above the wooden door, two skeletons, one with a scythe and one with an hourglass, stand next to an emblem showing a skull and a person between flames indicating that you don't have much time left.
The Sassi of Matera is famous for its cave dwellings; homes carved into the soft tufa rock that have been inhabited since the Paleolithic period.
The Madonna de Idris rock church.
Another of the Sassi-The UNESCO site is considered the third-oldest continuously inhabited places in the world.
Here you can see construction with bricks along with the natural rock caves.
Evacuation of this area started in 1952 due to poor living conditions, but the Sassi now houses hotels, museums, shops and restaurants .
Here's another hotel area, but there are still many abandoned areas that have not been refurbished.
Looking down on a road that used to be a water channel, but is now covered.
One of the wells in the Sassi.
We went into a museum to see how the water was sent to different cisterns and kept clean.
In the cistern where different water levels are indicated by the colors on the walls. The mirror in the corner shows where the bucket from the well comes down.
The top of this hill is where they filmed the crucifixion scene in The Passion of Christ by Mel Gibson. You can hike there, but the temperature was in the 90's so we chose not to do that.
The is an archeology dig where they found graves.
The rock areas are the graves.
The Sassi area was described as the shape of a dove with the Matera Cathedral in the middle and two wings of cave dwellings stretching out on each side. This is looking to one tip of the wing.
The churches, "rupestrian churches," of Matera, like the homes, are carved into stone. They date back to the Middle Ages; many have their interiors covered in vibrant frescoes. This is one of them, but no photos inside.
The ancient town grew up on one slope of the ravine created by the Gravina river. The ravine is known locally as The ancient town grew up on one slope of the ravine created by the Gravina river. The ravine is known locally as "la Gravina".
Looking the other direction at the ravine created by Gravina River upon which the ancient town grew up on.
An ancient drainpipe used to collect rainwater.
Our local guide, Antonio, did an excellent job teaching us about Matera and the Sassi.
We toured Casa Grotta (Cave House). Of course this is the bed, but raised high to store things underneath.
The floor was made out of tile, but lines uo side by side vertically. This floor will last a very long time!
A kind of kitchen area.
Their animals lived in the cave house with them.
A picture looking back into the cave, which was not very big.
When I saw pictures of people on the dresser and it suddenly hit me that there were actually people living here in these bad conditions until almost the time that I was born.
Another church that was beside the cave house.
Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church
This is a vent for the cave houses, which were pretty carved designs.
The road used to film Jesus carrying His cross in "The Passion of the Christ."
30 other films have been shot at Matera including Ben Hur (2016), Wonder Women (2017), and 007 No Time to Die (2021).
Look at these old arches and road, it's a perfect place for depicting scenes from long ago.
The cathedral at the top of the hill, in the middle of the dove shape.
Looking over at the other side (wing) of the Sassi.
We ended the day here getting some good gelato.