The Sassi of Matera

History Made Matera a Cultural Jumble

Almost everyone across Europe and the Mediteranean claimed Matera at some point in time.

Palaeolithic findings and Neolithic and Bronze Age underground settlements have been uncovered in the stone caves in the ravines below and across from the city. The original town center above the Sassi (where the cathedral is now) was a Roman settlement in the 3rd century BC and there is evidence of earlier Greek inhabitants. To either side of the plateau lie two limestone/tufa basins that are home to the Sassi districts of Caveoso and Barisano, home of the ancient cave dwellers.

Ancient caves of the first residents

In the 6th century BC, the Goths invaded Matera. After them came the Lombards, who fought it out over the centuries with the Byzantines. The town was destroyed and rebuilt three times due to invasions between 867 and 994.

13th century Cathedral of Matera

Matera came under Angevin (French) dominion in the period between the 12th and 13th centuries. Matera was then taken over by the Aragon (Spanish) dynasty. In the 15th and 16th centuries, there was a large influx of Albanians and Serbo-Croats compelled to flee their countries by the invading Turks.

The Aragon rulers (also the Kings of Naples) granted the town to Count Giancarlo Tramontano, but his heavy-handed taxation regime caused the populace to rise up and kill him in 1514.

Matera was chosen in 1663, as the seat of government of the Basilicata area in the Kingdom of Naples, a position it occupied until 1806 when Napoleon’s elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, moved the bureaucracy to Potenza.

Explore the ancient walkways into the Sassi

The town then followed the fortunes of Southern Italy until the unification of Italy in 1861. Since 1927, it has been a provincial capital of Basilicata. 

In the late 1800s, over-population of the town site drove people back into the Sassi, making them the neighborhoods of the abject poor. At first families lived in the bare caves. Later these developed into house-like structures. 

Matera was the first Italian town to rise against German occupation (September 21, 1943).

Sassi House circa 1950

The Sassi were evacuated by law in 1952, when 15,000 people, living in extremely poor hygienic circumstances, were resettled to new quarters. 

Today, Matera is defying the legacy of southern Italy to become a relatively prosperous agricultural and manufacturing hub as well as a popular tourist destination.

Matera, Famous for Stone, Art and Food

Matera is unique for its architecture and its food.  The regional Aglianico and Primitivo wines, the Matera bread, the Senise dried peppers, Lucanica sausages, the lamb slow-cooked in an earthenware pot (pignata), and the cheeses lure people to the Basilicata region of southern Italy.  Touring the caves, convents and churches of the Matera Sassi helps to burn off the calories.

Touring the Sassi is like stepping back in time

Matera’s Sassi are the best surviving and most complete examples of rock-cut settlement in the Mediterranean region. Nature provided this location with a belt of soft tufa, with two natural depressions. Today, the Sassi have been reborn with trendy, wealthy homes being built to incorporate both the caves and restored external structures.  Many new B&Bs, popular with tourists, have sprung up in the last five years.  Ribboned with stone stairways and paths, the Sassi are an intriguing mysterious place to take a daylight or nighttime tour. The experience is one of stepping back in time, but with startling glimpses of a modern prosperous future.

Matera's Traditional Bread

While hiking through the Sassi, find a small cafe to sample the savory bread of Matera and the various cheeses of the Basilicata region. The unique Pecorino cheese made in nearby Filiano is made from the milk of sheep that are bred in pastures. For producing this cheese, the shepherds from Filiano still use traditional techniques. The milk that comes from two milkings, the morning one and the evening one; thus, each wheel of cheese has a slightly different spicy taste depending on the time of the year and the type of pasture for the sheep. Pair this piccante cheese with a glass of Primitivo wine, a red wine made of a grape that is the ancient cousin of Zinfandel.

Painted clay traditional figurines

Materani artisans are justly famous for their sculptures carved from the native tufa stone and the colorful ceramic whistles and figurines.  This cultural center for the Basilicata region has attracted painters, jewelry designers and interior designers.  After a day hiking the Sassi, another can be spent perusing the galleries and workshops of these talented artists.

Tour Guide

Contact Amy Weideman for the best English language tours of the Sassi. Email: aweideman@libero.it

Cave House Museum

To view a cave home as it was pre-1950, visit Casa Grotta of Vico Solitario in Sasso Caveoso.

The roots of WFF are in romantic fiction – Harlequin Mondadori and Book Cents Literary Agency are sponsors. One story has it that Elizabeth Jennings, founder of the festival, followed her physician husband to Matera years ago, but missed her friends in Florence and Brussels, both places where she had worked as a translator.  Elizabeth also wrote romantic fiction and was connected via the internet to a world of authors. In 2004, she figured out how to get all of her friends to make the trek to Matera – create a conference of writers with the added bonus of simultaneous translation.Now, using the most modern equipment, the conference is perfect for those who speak either English or Italian. The whole town of Matera is invited to participate along with authors, agents and publishers from Italy, Germany, England and the United States.

Nick Hornby

This past September, master classes in Crime Fiction (including a trip to the local Criminal Investigation Laboratory), Memoir Writing, Short Story Writing and Young Adult Fiction (led by Nick Hornby, talking about his new book Slam) were offered as well as sessions on the international publishing forecast, query letters, literary contracts, and foreign rights.

WFF is small enough for authors to hang out with agents, editors and publishers, as well as other authors.  It’s a friendly place, unlike many of the huge U.S. writers’ conferences with their “speed dating” style of author-agent meetings. The agents, editors and publishers this year included those from Penguin (UK), Headline Publishing (UK), Blanvalet (Germany), Mills & Boon (UK), Dorchester Publishing (US), Mondadori (Italy), Memori (Italy), Writer’s Digest (US), Tea (Italy), Verlag (Germany), Serendipity Literary Agency (US), Greyhouse Agency (US), Sarah Jane Freyman Literary Agency (US), Mary Sue Seymore Literary Agency (US), Book Cents Literary Agency (US), and AP Watt Literary Agency (UK).

WFF held in Matera Monastery

From the opening greetings to the closing gala, the Women’s Fiction Festival of Matera, held each September, is the most educational, fun, edifying four days an aspiring author can experience. 

To read more about the 2008 Festival, see the following:

Jenyfer Matthews does the Women’s Fiction Festival (Killer Fiction Blog)

My Adventures In Italy (Guide to Literary Agents: Editor’s Blog)

Crime Fiction Events (Shotsmag: The Crime & Thriller Ezine)

And the 2004 Festival:

Women’s Fiction for Europe: No Cowboys, No Babies (International Herald Tribune)

Matera, located on Italy’s anklebone, boasts of being a UNESCO World Heritage Center with its ancient caves carved in the soft tufa that date back to prehistoric times. (Matera is one of the only places on earth where the residents are still living where their ancestors lived 9,000 years ago.) But what the Materani and visitors alike are more likely to be discussing at any minute of the day is the bread of Matera.  Like the Lardo di Colonnata, the Pane di Matera has been awarded the designation IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta), the only food so honored in the Basilicata region.

UNESCO World Heritage Site - Stones of Matera

A van driver tells his clients about the time he was at school in the north and three fellow students each brought back bread from their region.  His soft, yeasty, fragrant, slightly salted bread with a crunchy crust won hands down over the finely-textured saltless bread from Toscana and the tasty wheat bread from Bolzano. On the train heading north out of Bari, every third person is carrying a kilo or two of Pane di Matera.

Two kilo Loaf of Matera Bread

The tradition of Matera bread goes back to the Kingdom of Naples in the 15th and 16th centuries. It still uses the ancient varieties of hard wheat grown in the area, such as Cappelli, Duro Lucano, Capeiti and Appulo, whose flours give the bread its unique flavor. These typical varieties must make up at least 20% of the bread’s composition under the IGP rules. The preparation of the yeast, which uses fresh fruit in the process, is unique. Matera bread can only be made with a cone or crested shape and must weigh one or two kilograms (2.2 to 4.4 pounds) per loaf. It has a straw-colored, soft interior with a characteristic honeycomb look, which is surrounded by a hard crunchy crust.

Crunchy Crust and Soft Center of Matera Bread

Not more than thirty years ago, the bread-making day was a fixed event for the Matera housewife. It began the evening before by collecting the yeast, kept over from the last bread-making day, and making the starter dough that was then left to rise in the majustr, a large clay container. The next morning, a larger amount of dough was made using as much as 15 kilos of flour for big families. After leavening, the local baker made his rounds to pick up the dough. The women then went to the baker’s forno where they carefully watched over what happened to their own bread in the wood-burning oven. To recognize their own loaves, they used to mark each loaf on the fold with a hard wooden stamp. The stamp is still used in artisan bakeries today as are the practices of the Matera housewives of yore, although with the help of large kneading machines and long leavening tables.  Today, few people make Pane di Matera at home.

Is Pane di Matera the best bread in Italy? Tuscan Traveler invites your comments.