On the surface Matera seems to be a new (for Italy) town, built in the 1960s. But there is an old town where any building could date back to the 8th Century, or earlier. We had the slippery, narrow streets and steep stairways to ourselves on this drizzly morning. The only other activity came from the rubbish collectors dragging plastic bins up and down the stairways; no room for a garbage truck. The only sound other than the "da-duk" of the bin coming down the stairs was the soprano practicing opera from an upstairs apartment. This is a brown world, made of local rock and roof tiles, the smell of woodsmoke, an incense as old as time.
Old Town Matera
People have lived in the area since the Paleolithic and a permanent settlement has existed since the last Ice Age, Casa Grotta or cave houses carved into the soft tufa. The particular "casa grotta" we visited consisted of a main furnished room with a smaller kitchen and storeroom all carved into the rock. It was furnished with a "matrimonial" bed raised high above the damp floor, a dresser in whose open drawers young children slept, a loom, and various utensils. It was home to eleven people and a horse! A cistern for water was hacked out of the stone below the main room. A slop pot in the corners served as the toilet. This home, and hundreds more on the cliffside, were lived in until the 1950s when the people were "encouraged" to seek more modern dwellings. It certainly made me appreciate the middle-class neighborhood where I grew up!
Inside Casa Grotta
