Matera Self-Guided Tour: Caves, Counts & Crusades

Highlights

• Underground City & History
• Unique Narratives
• Full Digital Access

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   Stop 1

   Pass by

   Walk across a perfectly ordinary square hiding five thousand square metres of sealed chambers beneath your feet.

2. 2

   Palombaro Lungo

   Pass by

   Descend into a cistern that held enough rainwater to fill two Olympic swimming pools — and find the lost buckets on its floor.

3. 3

   Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio

   Pass by

   Pause where a Bourbon fountain once turned the daily water queue into the city's main social event.

4. 4

   Chiesa del Purgatorio

   Pass by

   Count the thirty-six skulls on the door and notice which families paid for a higher spot.

5. 5

   Stop 5

   Pass by

   Step through a trapdoor into an underground church that links a fresco of a medieval pope to the First Crusade.

6. 6

   Piazza del Sedile

   Pass by

   Stand near the boulder where conspirators hid before ambushing the count who taxed a city to build his own castle.

7. 7

   Stop 7

   Pass by

   Watch the Wheel of Fortune carved into stone, then hear why a crowd tears apart a handmade cart here every July.

8. 8

   Casa Noha

   Pass by

   See a noble house stripped bare and turned into a screen that projects the story Matera spent decades trying to forget.

Before you go

Location