The Sassi di Matera (meaning "stones of Matera") are ancient cave
dwellings in the Italian city of Matera, Basilicata. Situated in the old
town, they are composed of the Sasso Caveoso and the later Sasso
Barisano.
Matera has gained international fame for its "Sassi".
The Sassi originate from a prehistoric (troglodyte) settlement, and are
thought to be the second oldest city in the world.
The
Sassi are houses dug into the rock itself locally called "tufo". Many of
these "houses" are caves, and the streets in some parts of the Sassi
are located on the rooftops of other houses. The ancient town grew in
height on one slope of the ravine created by a river that is now a small
stream. The ravine is known locally as "La Gravina".
In
the 1950s, the government of Italy forcefully relocated most of the
population of the Sassi to areas of the developing modern city. Riddled
with malaria the unsanitary conditions were considered a shame for
Italy. However, people continued to live in the Sassi, and according to
the English Fodor's guide:
Matera is
the only place in the world where people can boast to be still living in
the same houses of their ancestors of 9,000 years ago.
Until
the late 1980s this was considered an area of poverty, since these
houses were, and in most areas still are, mostly unlivable. Current
local administration, however, has become more tourism-oriented, and has
promoted the re-generation of the Sassi with the aid of the European
Union, the government, UNESCO, and Hollywood: one of the benefits of the
ancient city, is that there is a great
similarity in the look of the Sassi with that of ancient sites in and
around Jerusalem.
This has caught the eye of film directors and movie studios.
Principally
due to this reason the Sassi were the set of many films, as for example
"The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (Pasolini, 1964), "King David"
(Bruce Beresford, 1985), "The Passion of the Christ" (Mel Gibson, 2004)
and "The Nativity Story" (Hardwicke, 2006).
