AudioZoom into Matera: A walk through the city carved into rock

Matera is one of Italy's most singular cities – a place where cave dwellings and Baroque cathedrals share the same ancient rock. On this walking tour, you'll trace the city's full arc, from its medieval origins and desperate poverty to its reinvention as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You'll also hear how the people who lived here shaped a resilient urban culture that stretches back to the Neolithic.

The tour starts at the Chiesa di San Francesco, whose 18th-century Rococo facade conceals layers of art dating back to the 1200s. From there, you'll go up to the Piano, the city's more refined historic quarter built during the Kingdom of Naples era. Then we will descend into the Sasso Caveoso, the more dramatically cave-shaped of Matera's two Sassi districts, where families once shared single rooms with their livestock. You'll wind through narrow alleys, climb rocky lanes, and cross into the Sasso Barisano.

Along the way, you'll visit the austere Romanesque cathedral, whose interior hides a 13th-century fresco of the Last Judgment – complete with friars tied to unclothed women as a dig at clerical hypocrisy. You'll also discover how Matera's extraordinary underground water system, including a cistern holding 5 million litres, helped earn its UNESCO status. The tour ends at the rock church complex of Madonna delle Virtù e San Nicola dei Greci, a monastery carved entirely into the cliff face, where Byzantine frescoes document the shift from rigid, solemn saints to more expressive, human figures. On this 60 to 90-minute tour (depending on your footwork!), you'll have a chance to:

• Tour the Casa Grotta, a furnished cave dwelling inhabited until 1956, with its stable, cistern, and communal bread stamp
• Explore MUSMA, a contemporary sculpture museum set inside a 17th-century palace and its underground caves
• Visit two interconnected rock churches, Madonna dell'Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone, carved into the same cliff
• Discover the story of Count Tramontano and his 16th-century castle
• Discover the Domenico Ridola Archaeological Museum, home to a 1.5-million-year-old whale fossil found near Matera
• Learn how the vicinato – communal cave neighbourhoods – sustained social life from prehistory through the 1950s

Matera rewards those willing to climb its steps and follow its winding lanes. This tour gives you the stories to make every one of them count.

Cover image by: Sterling Lanier