Matera, the city in the stone Zurück zur Übersicht

Matheola is one of the oldest cities in the world to have been inhabited, with settlements dating back to about 10,000 years ago (inhabited from the Paleolithic up to our days); the third in the world after Aleppo in Syria and Jericho in the Cisgiordania. This is the most exceptional and intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region. The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera include a complex of houses, churches, monasteries and hermitages built in the natural caves of the Murgia.