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 05 · Archaeology, architecture, working landscapes and contemporary access
A three-day route through Greek colonies, Indigenous landscapes, museums, temples, calanchi, hill towns, agricultural plains and protected coastal habitats.
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 three-day route through Greek colonies, Indigenous landscapes, museums, temples, calanchi, hill towns, agricultural plains and protected coastal habitats.
The route
A three-day route through Greek colonies, Indigenous landscapes, museums, temples, calanchi, hill towns, agricultural plains and protected coastal habitats.
Move in the documented order: Metaponto Museum: territory before the temple photograph; then Metaponto Archaeological Park: streets, sanctuaries and an agricultural city; then Tavole Palatine: surviving columns in a changed river plain. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Move in the documented order: Bernalda: a later hill town above ancient Metaponto; then Pisticci: white houses above unstable clay; then Craco: abandonment, safety and the limits of access. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Move in the documented order: Museo della Siritide: Indigenous and Greek worlds around Policoro; then Siris-Herakleia Archaeological Park: two cities and later fields; then Tursi, the Rabatana and Anglona. Recheck live access, weather and transport before entering a controlled place.
Move in the documented order: Aliano and the calanchi: political exile, literature and residence. 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 national museum connects prehistoric communities, Greek colonisation, rural sanctuaries and later occupation across the Metapontine plain.
The national museum connects prehistoric communities, Greek colonisation, rural sanctuaries and later occupation across the Metapontine plain. 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.
Collections come from the city, cemeteries, sanctuaries and countryside, allowing archaeology to reconstruct systems rather than collect detached sculpture.
Follow provenance and chronology before visiting the outdoor sites, and verify which rooms or temporary exhibitions are open.
Foundations and public spaces expose only part of a planned Greek and later urban landscape embedded in the modern plain.
Foundations and public spaces expose only part of a planned Greek and later urban landscape embedded in the modern plain. 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.
Metapontum developed from the seventh century BCE and was transformed through Greek, Lucanian, Roman and late antique phases.
Read road alignments, temple foundations and drainage with cultivated surroundings, avoiding a complete white-marble reconstruction.
Fifteen Doric columns preserve part of a sanctuary of Hera outside the ancient urban centre.
Fifteen Doric columns preserve part of a sanctuary of Hera outside the ancient urban centre. 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.
The temple belonged to the Greek colonial landscape and survived through spoliation, agricultural change and modern conservation near the Bradano.
Observe column spacing, stylobate and surrounding land, distinguishing the sanctuary from the separate city site and museum.
A fifteenth-century urban centre and castle overlook the plain where older settlements and modern coastal development meet.
A fifteenth-century urban centre and castle overlook the plain where older settlements and modern coastal development meet. 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.
Bernalda grew from the relocation and consolidation of communities under late medieval and early modern lordship, while Metaponto became its coastal frazione.
Read the long main street, castle edge and views toward the Ionian plain without claiming Bernalda is the direct intact continuation of the Greek city.
A dense hill town sits within the calanchi, where building, landslide risk and modern expansion are visibly connected.
A dense hill town sits within the calanchi, where building, landslide risk and modern expansion are visibly connected. 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.
The settlement preserves medieval and later districts but has repeatedly faced earth movement, relocation and twentieth-century industrial change on the plain below.
Notice retaining structures, drainage, inhabited lanes and the clay landscape; do not frame instability as a decorative backdrop.
The evacuated hill town preserves damaged buildings and a dramatic relationship with unstable clay terrain.
The evacuated hill town preserves damaged buildings and a dramatic relationship with unstable clay terrain. 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.
Landslides, infrastructure problems and relocation led to progressive abandonment in the twentieth century, while controlled cultural use followed later.
Enter only through authorised arrangements, respect barriers and avoid presenting roofless homes as an untouched medieval film set.
The national museum presents Enotrian, Greek and Lucanian evidence from Siris, Herakleia and the lower Agri and Sinni territories.
The national museum presents Enotrian, Greek and Lucanian evidence from Siris, Herakleia and the lower Agri and Sinni territories. 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.
Excavations and regional research built collections that reveal changing settlements, sanctuaries, burials and exchange rather than one colonial story.
Follow labels for provenance and cultural attribution, keeping ancient identities and modern municipal boundaries distinct.
Urban and sanctuary remains near Policoro record Greek foundations, rebuilding and a landscape still shaped by agriculture.
Urban and sanctuary remains near Policoro record Greek foundations, rebuilding and a landscape still shaped by agriculture. 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.
Siris and later Herakleia occupied related but changing territories before Roman control altered the city’s role and settlement pattern.
Use the museum first, then read exposed foundations without merging Siris and Herakleia into one simultaneous reconstructed city.
A steep historic quarter, later town and hilltop sanctuary preserve different chapters above the Agri and Sinni routes.
A steep historic quarter, later town and hilltop sanctuary preserve different chapters above the Agri and Sinni routes. 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.
The Rabatana reflects medieval fortified settlement and later reuse, while the sanctuary of Anglona preserves its own religious and architectural history.
Keep the inhabited town and separate sanctuary distinct, using safe streets and current worship access rather than compressing both into one monument.
A small inhabited town in an eroded clay landscape is closely associated with Carlo Levi’s confinement and later cultural memory.
A small inhabited town in an eroded clay landscape is closely associated with Carlo Levi’s confinement and later cultural memory. 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.
The modern history of internal exile and representation added a powerful literary layer to a community with much longer rural and religious histories.
Read museum interpretation, cemetery, streets and landscape separately, avoiding the idea that present residents exist inside a frozen literary scene.
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.
