Matera

Matera (Italian pronunciation: [maˈtɛːra], locally [maˈteːra] ; Materano: Matàrë [maˈtæːrə]) is a city and the capital of the Province of Matera in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy. With a history of continuous occupation dating back to prehistory (the eighth millennium BC), it is renowned for its rock-cut urban core, whose twin cliffside zones are known collectively as the Sassi. Matera lies on the right bank of the Gravina river, whose canyon forms a geological boundary between the hill country of Basilicata (historic Lucania) to the southwest and the Murgia plateau of Apulia to the northeast. The city began as a complex of cave habitations excavated in the softer limestone on the gorge's western, Lucanian face. It took advantage of two streams that flow into the ravine from a spot near the Castello Tramontano, reducing the cliff's angle of drop and leaving a defensible narrow promontory between the streams. The central high ground, or acropolis, supporting the city's cathedral and administrative buildings, came to be known as Civita, and the settlement districts scaling down and burrowing into the sheer rock faces as the Sassi. Of the two streambeds, called the grabiglioni, the northern hosts Sasso Barisano (facing Bari) and the southern Sasso Caveoso (facing Montescaglioso). The Sassi consist of approximately twelve levels spanning the height of 380 m, connected by a network of paths, stairways, and courtyards (vicinati). The medieval city clinging on to the edge of the canyon for its defense is invisible from the western approach. The tripartite urban structure of Civita and the two Sassi, relatively isolated from each other, survived until the sixteenth century, when the centre of public life moved outside the walls to the Piazza Sedile in the open plain (the Piano) to the west, followed by the shift of the elite residences...