Tourism has been my passion and my profession since 1990. I began in La Plata, Argentina, at Euromar Turismo, the agency owned by my beloved father, Orazio Filippo Greco, before continuing in Italy with Andina Viaggi. Merlintravel grows from that experience and the desire to keep exploring and sharing the world. The journey continues…
Let’s see where it takes us.
Tourism has been my passion and my profession since 1990. I began in La Plata, Argentina, at Euromar Turismo, the agency owned by my beloved father, Orazio Filippo Greco, before continuing in Italy with Andina Viaggi. Merlintravel grows from that experience and the desire to keep exploring and sharing the world. The journey continues…
Let’s see where it takes us.
Basilicata Guide 01 · Archaeology, architecture, working landscapes and contemporary access
A two-day route through the Sassi, Civita, water systems, museums and the limestone plateau, reading displacement and recovery alongside much older occupation.
Plan the routeWhy this route must be read in layers
The route begins with documented fabric and institutional collections rather than a list of photogenic surfaces. Each chapter separates what survives, what was rebuilt and what remains in use.
Basilicata’s ravines, archaeological parks, forests, villages, religious sites and two coastlines operate under different access conditions. Current notices therefore belong to the route rather than an appendix.
Each chapter includes an illustration of the place described. The images are watercolours rather than photographs.
A two-day route through the Sassi, Civita, water systems, museums and the limestone plateau, reading displacement and recovery alongside much older occupation.
The route
A two-day route through the Sassi, Civita, water systems, museums and the limestone plateau, reading displacement and recovery alongside much older occupation.
Move in the documented order: Sasso Barisano and Civita: built stone above excavated rooms; then Sasso Caveoso: dwelling, displacement and restoration; then Matera Cathedral: the Civita between two Sassi. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Move in the documented order: Palombaro Lungo: public water beneath the Piano; then Madonna de Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone; then Santa Lucia alle Malve: a convent church inside the rock. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Move in the documented order: Museo Ridola: prehistory before the famous skyline; then Palazzo Lanfranchi: sacred art, modern painting and cultural reuse; then Casa Noha: interpretation inside a donated residence. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Move in the documented order: Murgia Timone: plateau, churches and the view back. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Ten chapters
The order follows terrain, institutions and present-day movement. Use the index to return to a chapter without reducing the route to isolated monuments.
The northern Sasso combines rock-cut spaces with substantial constructed facades below the cathedral ridge.
The northern Sasso combines rock-cut spaces with substantial constructed facades below the cathedral ridge. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
This is an inhabited place, not a visitor set. Keep doorways, pavements and deliveries clear, and use current municipal mobility information.
Occupation expanded beyond the early Civita while houses, workshops, religious institutions and water systems changed through medieval and modern centuries.
Read roofs as streets, facades as retaining structures and shared courts as working circulation; do not treat every interior as an untouched cave dwelling.
Cave houses and later masonry preserve evidence of domestic life as well as the forced evacuation begun in the 1950s.
Cave houses and later masonry preserve evidence of domestic life as well as the forced evacuation begun in the 1950s. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
This is an inhabited place, not a visitor set. Keep doorways, pavements and deliveries clear, and use current municipal mobility information.
Long occupation was followed by severe twentieth-century living conditions, state relocation and a gradual programme of recovery and adaptive reuse.
Distinguish excavated rooms, built additions, abandoned fabric and restored hospitality uses; residents’ history matters more than picturesque emptiness.
The thirteenth-century cathedral occupies the ridge that separates Barisano and Caveoso and remains the city’s active episcopal centre.
The thirteenth-century cathedral occupies the ridge that separates Barisano and Caveoso and remains the city’s active episcopal centre. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
This is an active religious place. Services, ceremonies and conservation can interrupt tourist access; dress appropriately, remain quiet and verify the official notice.
The Romanesque building was constructed in the Apulian tradition and later interiors accumulated chapels, paintings and Baroque intervention.
Approach from the Civita to understand topography, then separate the medieval exterior from later interior campaigns and present worship.
A vast excavated cistern reveals how rainwater storage supported the urban plateau above the Sassi.
A vast excavated cistern reveals how rainwater storage supported the urban plateau above the Sassi. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
Archaeological access can change because of conservation, excavation, weather or staffing. Stay outside barriers and verify the official opening notice.
Channels and reservoirs developed over time and were integrated into the nineteenth-century public water system before modern networks replaced their function.
Use the controlled route to read waterproof surfaces, inlet levels and later openings; the reservoir is infrastructure, not a natural cavern.
Two connected rock churches occupy a limestone spur above the Caveoso and preserve altered painted interiors.
Two connected rock churches occupy a limestone spur above the Caveoso and preserve altered painted interiors. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
This is an active religious place. Services, ceremonies and conservation can interrupt tourist access; dress appropriately, remain quiet and verify the official notice.
The spaces were excavated and adapted through medieval and later phases; paintings, openings and visitor routes have all changed.
Keep worship history, surviving fresco fragments and modern conservation distinct, and do not infer one original programme from the present rooms.
A rock-cut church linked to a female monastic community preserves architecture and painted surfaces within the inhabited Sasso.
A rock-cut church linked to a female monastic community preserves architecture and painted surfaces within the inhabited Sasso. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
This is an active religious place. Services, ceremonies and conservation can interrupt tourist access; dress appropriately, remain quiet and verify the official notice.
The medieval complex changed function after the community moved, and portions were reused within later domestic occupation.
Notice divisions between liturgical areas, later walls and visitor access; the adjacent neighbourhood remains a living urban space.
Basilicata’s oldest archaeological museum connects Matera to Palaeolithic, Neolithic and later communities across the surrounding plateau.
Basilicata’s oldest archaeological museum connects Matera to Palaeolithic, Neolithic and later communities across the surrounding plateau. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
Opening, ticketing, room access and temporary displays can change. Check the museum’s official notice shortly before visiting and allow for security or conservation controls.
Domenico Ridola’s collecting and excavations formed an early core that modern displays must reinterpret through provenance and updated archaeology.
Follow chronology and excavation context, distinguishing historical collecting methods from current conservation and research.
A former seminary now houses the national museum of medieval and modern art, including works tied to southern social history.
A former seminary now houses the national museum of medieval and modern art, including works tied to southern social history. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
Opening, ticketing, room access and temporary displays can change. Check the museum’s official notice shortly before visiting and allow for security or conservation controls.
The seventeenth-century building changed institutional function before becoming a museum; its collections range beyond the era of its architecture.
Separate palace fabric, exhibition design and individual works, and verify temporary-gallery access on the official museum notice.
A historic house near the cathedral introduces Matera’s social and urban history through a contemporary multimedia route.
A historic house near the cathedral introduces Matera’s social and urban history through a contemporary multimedia route. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
Opening, ticketing, room access and temporary displays can change. Check the museum’s official notice shortly before visiting and allow for security or conservation controls.
The FAI property preserves domestic spaces while its visitor experience uses modern projection and narration to discuss the city’s transformations.
Treat the presentation as an interpretive starting point, then test its themes against the physical Sassi and institutional sources.
Across the Gravina, paths connect pastoral land, rock churches and a complete view of Matera’s relationship with the ravine.
Across the Gravina, paths connect pastoral land, rock churches and a complete view of Matera’s relationship with the ravine. The place becomes clearer when surviving fabric, later change and present use are read together.
Weather, heat, fire risk, snow, sea state and seasonal restrictions can alter access. Use official park or reserve information and remain on authorised routes.
The plateau preserves archaeological traces, religious excavation and long agricultural use within the UNESCO property and regional park.
Use authorised paths and current park notices; read the Sassi, ravine and plateau as one system rather than using the viewpoint only for photographs.
Basilicata through time
From Palaeolithic evidence and Greek cities to Roman roads, Norman government, Arbëreshë communities, modern displacement, protected parks and contemporary cultural recovery.
Sites including Notarchirico document very early human presence and changing environments in inland Basilicata.
Neolithic villages, cave use and exchange networks develop across the Matera plateau, valleys and Ionian approaches.
Oenotrian and other Indigenous communities organise hill settlements, burial grounds and routes before and during Greek colonisation.
Siris and Metapontum connect the Ionian plain to the Greek world while maintaining complex relations with inland societies.
Lucanian communities, Greek cities and regional elites reshape fortified settlements, sanctuaries and agricultural territories.
Rome establishes a colony at Venusia, strengthening control of routes between Apulia, Lucania and Campania.
Roman towns, estates, roads and production systems link Venusia, Grumentum and the Ionian coast to wider imperial networks.
Gothic, Byzantine, Lombard and local powers contest frontiers marked by bishoprics, monasteries and rock-cut religious places.
Melfi becomes central to Norman rule while castles, dioceses and monastic complexes reorganise the region.
The Constitutions of Melfi express Frederick II’s programme of royal government in the Kingdom of Sicily.
Aragonese and seigneurial rule, Arbëreshë settlement and changing religious institutions add new layers to towns and valleys.
Feudal abolition, Bourbon reform and Italian unification alter institutions without resolving land inequality.
Civil conflict labelled brigandage reveals contested state formation, rural hardship and violence across inland Basilicata.
Emigration, poverty, malaria, land reform and the compulsory displacement of residents from the Sassi define a difficult modern transition.
Earthquake reconstruction, the 1993 UNESCO inscription, Matera 2019, park systems and museum renewal expand access while depopulation and climate risk continue.
Before your visit
Opening hours, guided routes, restoration, worship and seasonal services can change. Recheck the linked official page shortly before departure.
Mountain roads, valley crossings and the two coasts make travel slower than the map suggests. Do not compress distant territories into one superficial day.
The Sassi, hill towns, Arbëreshë villages, farms and port districts remain inhabited. Keep homes, doorways, work and local movement clear.
Stay behind barriers. Surviving remains, excavated foundations and later reconstructions reveal different stages of the sites’ histories.
Heat, fire risk, snow, storms, river conditions and protected habitats can alter access. Follow the responsible park or reserve authority.
Displacement, reconstruction, industrial change, adaptive reuse and contemporary art belong to Basilicata’s documented history rather than sitting outside it.
Method and sources
This guide uses official museum, ministry, municipal, park, UNESCO and regional-tourism documentation checked on 1 September 2026. It distinguishes prehistoric, Oenotrian, Greek, Lucanian, Roman, Byzantine, Lombard, Norman, Swabian and later phases rather than treating Basilicata as one timeless southern landscape. Every chapter links its principal institutional source; tickets, worship, closures, heat, fire risk, snow, sea conditions and transport must always be verified again on the day of the visit.
All ten images are original Merlintravel editorial watercolours based on documented present-day conditions. They are illustrations, not substitutes for archaeological plans. Opening hours, tickets, accessible routes, temporary exhibitions and conservation work can change; consult the linked official pages shortly before visiting.
