Matera, stones and tradition stories

Matera is beautiful. Matera is breathtaking. The first time I saw the old town, one morning at six looking out the hotel window, I could not believe my eyes. The words are of little use, need visit Matera to understand what I mean. Before delving among its lanes, before discovering the traditions and fall in love, But, you have to know at least a little 'history.

Matera, to be ashamed of Italy in Capital of Culture 2019

Visit Matera is different from going to any other Italian cities: this place has something special, It seems to feel his strength come from the stone of its houses, you can feel the history in every corner.

Matera is an ancient city, here man lives from the Palaeolithic digging their own shelters in the rock of Sasso Caveoso It is in the Sasso Barisano, the rock formations that overlook overhanging the stream Gravina, in front of the Murgia.

Here man has written a unique and unrepeatable history page.

Greeks, Byzantines, Normans and Spaniards: many passed here, but no one could change the urban and the traditions of this city.

The history of man is confused, It fits and is interwoven with that of the nature. The life of the people who inhabited Matera is inextricably linked to the surroundings and that is why we are here one of the first things that strikes you is the skill with which the man was able to fend, creating the unique intellectual.

Yet life in Matera has been anything but simple and the conditions of those who once lived in Sassi, the excavated houses the tufa, were difficult and unhealthy. Families too numerous, together with their animals, shared housing formed mostly by one room, without electricity, running water and sewerage.

Alcide De Gasperi and Palmiro Togliatti defined the city Lucan "national shame" It is in the 1952 He began the evacuation of the Sassi.

The recovery of the old town as we know it began in 1986 and he has had a boost in 1993 Matera when it became part of the UNESCO World Heritage site.

In 2019 the city will Capital of Culture and this is why visiting Matera can not do without knowing its history: Matera is proof that you can make of its past strength and identity.

Author: Selene Scinicariello

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