Matera

Matera is famous for the so-called Sassi, cave houses.
The story goes that the rocks on the spot where Matera is now served as shelters for monastics who had fled from the Byzantine Empire since the eighth century. Gradually they carved out more and more 'dwellings' in the caves.
Even as late as 1950, some thirty to forty thousand people still lived in the cave houses that are so characteristic of Matera. However, due to poor sanitary conditions (people often lived together with animals in the same room), the mortality rate was very high. Due to these dangerous living conditions, the decision was therefore made that everyone had to leave the Sassi.
We walked through the streets and were amazed at their antiquity. The drone shows how uniquely this city is built, with a canyon on one side and a hill on the other.