Noha House doesn’t just stand quietly in Matera’s Civita district-it speaks. Built in the 15th century as the residence of the noble Noha family, it once anchored a patchwork of gardens and estates that even included their own bridge, linking their property to the Saint Paolo quarter. Unlike their peers, who chose more stable terrain, the Nohas built their home directly over an erosion channel. To shore it up, they recycled ruins as foundations, unintentionally unearthing traces of Bronze and Iron Age life, along with Greek, Roman, and medieval layers. In short, Noha House was perched above a cross-section of Matera’s entire past.

Architecturally, it mirrors the Sassi themselves-half-carved into the rock, half-built above ground. A courtyard framed by service rooms, an external staircase climbing toward the living quarters, and stone details give the house its distinctive form. For centuries it remained a private residence, until it was donated to the Italian Environmental Fund, an organization dedicated to preserving Italy’s heritage. Acquired in 2004, it was carefully restored and transformed from a family home into a cultural threshold for the city.

Step inside and you won’t find display cases or shelves of artifacts. Instead, the house itself becomes the stage for The Invisible Stones, a thirty-minute immersive presentation. Film, archival images, and narration flood the walls, guiding visitors through Matera’s story-from its earliest cave settlements to its medieval faith, from the abandonment and stigma of the 20th century to the UNESCO recognition and cultural revival that redefined its future.

Noha House now acts as both a preserved piece of Matera’s fabric and a lens through which the city is understood. By sitting in its cool stone rooms, visitors gain not only orientation but perspective: the journey of a city once dismissed as a national embarrassment, reborn as a European Capital of Culture, carved permanently into the rock of memory.

The Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, known as MUSMA, is one of Matera’s most distinctive cultural institutions. Opened in 2006, it is housed within the historic Pomarici Palace (Palazzo Pomarici), a 17th-century noble residence situated in the Sasso Caveoso district. Unlike traditional museums, MUSMA integrates its collection directly into the architecture of the building, with sculptures displayed not only in the grand rooms of the palace but also in its underground cave spaces carved from tufa rock. This unusual setting creates a striking dialogue between ancient stone environments and modern artistic expression, making it the only museum in Italy dedicated exclusively to contemporary sculpture.

The collection spans from the mid-20th century to the present day, showcasing works by both Italian and international artists. Visitors will encounter a wide variety of sculptural forms, ranging from bronze and marble to experimental materials, reflecting the diversity and innovation of contemporary practice. The museum also emphasizes works that explore the relationship between art and space, a theme heightened by the dramatic contrast between the refined palace interiors and the raw rock chambers below. This unique presentation not only highlights the evolution of sculpture but also demonstrates how the medium adapts to different cultural and physical landscapes.

Beyond its permanent collection, MUSMA hosts temporary exhibitions, educational workshops, and cultural events, reinforcing its role as a living centre of creativity. Its integration within Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, enhances the visitor experience by linking modern artistic exploration with the city’s ancient urban fabric. For those seeking to understand how history and contemporary art can coexist, MUSMA offers an immersive and memorable encounter.

The Church of Saint Maria of Idris is a rupestrian church in Matera. It is carved into a limestone rock of Monterrone that dominates the Sasso Caveoso. The beautiful location offers a unique view of the city. The church can be reached via stairs to the rock Church of Santa Lucia alle Malve. "Idris" is derived from the Greek "Odigitria," "who shows the way."

A facade of masonry is next to a small bell tower. The interior nave is uneven. Some frescoes have been removed for restoration. Once restored, they are kept at the Superintendency for Historical and Artistic Heritage of Matera. On the altar is a 17th-century tempera rendering of the Madonna and Child.

Santa Maria de Idris is connected to the rock crypt of San Giovanni in Monterrone via a tunnel. The tomb holds several precious frescoes from the 12th to the 17th century. A fresco of John the Baptist is in the tunnel. In a lunette above the crypt is a 12th-century Christ Pantocrator. The title is Greek, meaning "All-Powerful."

After the corridor is a large hall, a nave of San Giovanni in Monterrone. On the wall of the presbytery is a 12th-century Madonna and Child, Glykophilousa style (Virgin of the Sweet Kiss). Other saints stand in decorated niches.

The Cave House of Lonely Alley pulls you straight into Matera’s past, before 1952, when the government declared the Sassi unfit for living and moved families out. While many of the old cave homes have since been polished into hotels and guesthouses, this one was left as it was-complete with tools, furniture, and the everyday traces of life carved into stone. It’s less a reconstruction than a freeze-frame, showing exactly how generations managed to live inside the rock.

The house itself is set in a natural hollow in the limestone, with additions made over the 18th century. Step through its wide archway and you enter a single chamber, where spaces were divided not by walls but by necessity. Light fell on the front rooms, so that’s where cooking, eating, and sleeping took place. A single table fed the family, a brazier provided heat, and a raised bed with a corn-stuffed mattress kept dampness at bay.

Move further in and the cave becomes more practical: a manger for the mule, a manure pit, and rough stables. Tools, pottery, and a loom remind us that work and domestic life were inseparable, while channels cut into the rock fed a cistern that captured every drop of precious rainwater.

When the Sassi were abandoned, the house-like many others-stood empty, part of what Italians called the “shame of Italy.” Today, it survives as a reminder of that era, complemented by nearby sites like the rock church of Saint Pietro Monterrone and a snow cave now showing old documentary footage.

The Cave House of Lonely Alley doesn’t romanticize the past-it lets you walk into it, stone walls and all, and see how people endured by turning bare rock into a home.

Pascoli Square Belvedere may be small in size, but it has long punched above its weight in Matera’s story. Tucked beside the 17th-century Lanfranchi Palace-once a Dominican seminary, now home to the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Basilicata-it carries the name of poet Giovanni Pascoli, who briefly taught here in the 19th century. For a man of words, this outlook would have needed none: the view alone speaks volumes.

From the parapet, the Sassi districts stretch out in layers-Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano clinging to the limestone cliffs, with the Gravina gorge plunging below and the Murgia plateau beyond. The cathedral rises on the ridge, rupestrian churches mark the cliffs, and at night the caves glitter with light, as if Matera itself were a constellation set into stone.

The square has also doubled as a stage for art and reflection. In 2011, Japanese sculptor Kengiro Azuma placed The Drop here, a bronze monument nearly three meters tall, a reminder that water has always been the lifeblood of the city carved into rock. Long before that, in the 17th and 18th centuries, this terrace was part of Matera’s baroque expansion, linking the civic quarter with the ancient cave districts below. By the 20th century, it had settled into the role of gathering ground, alive with markets, concerts, and public life.

Today, Pascoli Plaza balances past and present. It frames one of Matera’s most photographed panoramas while remaining a lived-in square, where everyday chatter mixes with centuries of history beneath the open sky.

Lanfranchi Palace brings a touch of grandeur to Giovanni Pascoli Square, its baroque façade standing as proof that 17th-century Matera knew how to make an impression. Commissioned by Bishop Vincenzo Lanfranchi between 1668 and 1672, the building began life as a seminary, built in line with the vision of strengthening Catholic presence. Though designed with function in mind, the palace never lost its flair, absorbing older structures into a monumental front that still commands attention today.

The palace’s story doesn’t end with the clergy. By the 19th century, the seminary’s days were over, and new roles followed. It was tied to the Church of the Carmine, adapted for judicial use, and even served educational purposes before settling into civic life. The real transformation came in the late 20th century, when restoration prepared it for its present role. Since 2003, Lanfranchi Palace has been home to the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Basilicata, breathing new life into its historic halls.

Inside, the collections move across centuries. Sacred Art preserves pieces rescued from regional churches, while the Collectibles section displays canvases from the Neapolitan school of the 17th and 18th centuries. The modern galleries highlight works by Luigi Guerricchio and Carlo Levi, whose exile in Basilicata inspired Christ Stopped at Eboli. Levi’s paintings-showing the hardships and resilience of southern peasants-anchor the building’s cultural narrative in the 20th century.

And of course, the palace itself plays its part. Visitors move through arcaded halls, cloisters, and staircases, with occasional views opening over the Sasso Caveoso below. Today, exhibitions, conferences, and cultural events fill the rooms, keeping the palace both a historic monument and a working cultural hub. It is less a relic than a bridge: between baroque Matera, modern Basilicata, and the stories that bind them together.

The Domenico Ridola National Archaeological Museum, housed in the former convent of Santa Chiara in Matera, stands proudly as the oldest museum in the Basilicata region, established on 9 February 1911 thanks to the generous donation of archaeological collections by Senator and physician Domenico Ridola. Today, it forms one of the two locations of the National Museum of Matera, underlining its central role in preserving the territory’s ancient heritage.

Visitors will discover a meticulously arranged journey through prehistory and antiquity. The museum features a prehistoric section brimming with Pleistocene artifacts-such as arrows, javelins, and axes from Matera’s Murgia, notably the Bat Cave (Grotta dei Pipistrelli)-alongside remains of Neolithic fortified villages from sites like Tirlecchia, Murgia Timone, Murgecchia, and Serra d’Alto, the latter renowned for its richly decorated pottery.

Further exploration leads to displays from the valleys of the Basento and Bradano rivers. These showcase a vast array of archaeological riches-from tombs and Iron Age grave goods in Pisticci, Ferrandina, Pomarico, Garaguso, and Tricarico, to funerary offerings and red-figure pottery, as well as bronze and Roman-age artifacts documenting the evolving civilizations of the area. A highlight is the Timmari collection, featuring votive statuettes, bronzes, and monumental red-figure vessels from the 5th–4th century B.C., attesting to the area’s rich ritualistic and funerary practices.

In the Sala Ridola, the museum honors its founder through manuscripts, personal documents, and relics, offering an intimate glimpse into the life and legacy of Ridola, who, besides being a dedicated archaeologist, was a beloved local physician and senator. This final room connects visitors not only with ancient civilizations, but also with the passionate scholar who made their preservation possible.

Beneath Matera’s Vittorio Veneto Square lies the Palombaro Lungo, a cistern of such scale and ambition that locals began calling it a water cathedral. The project began in the 16th century, when natural caves were stitched together to form part of the city’s water network, though the final push to complete it only came in 1832. By then, the underground chamber stretched long and deep, able to hold nearly five million liters of water collected from rainfall and nearby springs-an immense reservoir for a town where rivers were scarce and every drop mattered. Expansion continued into the 1880s, ensuring that Matera’s residents had a steady supply long before modern pipelines arrived.

The very name tells its story. Some link Palombaro to the Latin for a bird of prey diving toward its target, others to plumbarius, a term for water collectors, while Lungo simply nods to its enormous size. Step inside and the atmosphere justifies the reputation: arches and stone columns rise like the supports of a great basilica, their reflections dancing in the still water below. For generations, this hidden structure fed the square’s fountain above and supplied Matera’s households, until the Apulian Aqueduct, completed in 1920, finally made it redundant.

For decades, the cistern sat sealed and forgotten until 1991, when students climbed in with a dinghy and revealed what lay below. Their discovery, followed by careful restoration, offered the city not just a reclaimed monument but proof of its historic ingenuity-evidence that helped Matera secure its UNESCO World Heritage designation.

Today, raised walkways guide visitors across this immense chamber. With dim lighting, mirrored waters, and soaring vaults, the Palombaro Lungo feels both monumental and intimate-a reminder that Matera’s survival was literally carved out of stone.

Located in the heart of Matera’s iconic Sassi district, the Museum‑Workshop of the Peasant Culture (Museo‑Laboratorio della Civiltà Contadina) is a captivating ethnographic museum that brings to life the traditional agricultural and artisan society of the region. Housed in a restored 16th‑century “lamione”-a structure built above a cave dwelling (casa‑grotta) to shelter families away from their livestock at night-the museum immerses visitors in a tangible slice of rural history.

Spanning around 500 square meters, the museum is planned to gradually double its size to include interactive workshops where young people can learn ancient crafts such as papier‑mâché, pottery, and basket‑making. Inside, a network of connected rooms recreates the typical living and working spaces of Matera’s past-containing artisan workshops, daily‑life interiors like public wine cellars (ciddaro), and exhibits highlighting aspects of southern Italian history, including brigandage and childhood.

What sets the museum apart is its immersive, lifelike presentation: rather than displaying artifacts in dispassionate showcases, the curators sought to faithfully reconstruct environments in which those items once functioned. This was achieved through both scholarly research in peasant literature and oral history from elderly locals whose personal memories lent unmatched authenticity to the settings.

Beyond exhibition, the cultural association managing the museum fosters educational activities-ranging from tourist visits to projects tailored to school groups. They also publish works such as “Tales from the Museum,” as well as guidebooks, virtual‑tour CD‑ROMs, and materials on traditional water‑harvesting systems in Matera.

The Sassi in Miniatura in Matera feels like a city within a city-only this one fits inside a single room. On Fiorentini Street in the Sasso Barisano, not far from the Cathedral and Tramontano Castle, artisan Eustachio Rizzi set himself a challenge back in 1996: to carve Matera’s entire cave district into the very stone it was built from. Three years later, out came a 129-square-foot model, weighing 3,500 pounds, and packed with enough detail to make your eyes linger for minutes on a single corner.

Look closely, and the city shrinks before you: staircases zigzagging up hillsides, courtyards tucked between homes, mule paths winding their way past farmhouses, and even little churches glowing with lights. The sheer density of the real Sassi can overwhelm first-time visitors, but Rizzi’s miniature distills centuries of growth into one comprehensible view-a kind of stone-made map that shows how people, animals, and faith all shared the same carved landscape.

The workshop doubles as a gallery of smaller stone carvings and souvenirs, tying Matera’s geology to its cultural identity. But the big model is more than just orientation-it’s commentary. The Sassi, once abandoned and condemned as the “shame of Italy,” now stand as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Rizzi’s creation mirrors that turnaround. By chiseling the story of Matera into miniature, he gave visitors a way to understand not only the city’s structure but also its resilience.

Walking through the real Sassi after seeing the model feels different. You already carry in your head a compressed version of the maze, which makes each alley and staircase less confusing and more alive-like you’ve already walked the city once before, only in miniature.

The Matera Cathedral crowns the city from the highest ridge between the Sassi districts, a position that has made it both a landmark and a watchful presence for nearly eight centuries. Work began around 1230, on the ruins of a Benedictine monastery, and by 1270 the new cathedral was ready-first dedicated to Saint Eustace, then later to the Dark-skinned Madonna, who became Matera’s most beloved protector. From the outside, the building still carries the clean lines of the 13th century, while the interior reveals a far more layered history of alteration and embellishment.

Look closely at the façade: a rose window with sixteen rays bursts out from the stone, framed above by Archangel Michael trampling a dragon. Below, an Atlas figure strains under the weight of the design, while a row of lemons-twelve in all-quietly symbolize the apostles. Lions, saints, and prophets guard the portal, while a 170-foot bell tower rises beside it, visible from every corner of the Sassi.

Step inside and the mood shifts. A Byzantine fresco of the Dark-skinned Madonna survives from the 13th century, while later centuries gilded the space with painted ceilings, elaborate plasterwork, and golden altars. The wooden choir stalls, Persio’s Nativity, and Santoro’s paintings all speak to Matera’s artistic lineage. The Chapel of the Annunciation, with its coffered ceiling and sculpted Virgin, completes the ensemble.

Neglect, earthquakes, and restorations have all left their trace, but since reopening in 2016 the cathedral has returned to its role as both parish church and symbol of civic pride. From its terrace, the view sweeps down over the Sassi, making the cathedral as much a vantage point on Matera’s history as it is a place of worship.