Infomazioni turistiche

Information on guided tours, experiences, crafts, museums, and cultural sites in Matera

Reservations and guided tours

Matera is a must-see destination for its cultural heritage. The city offers numerous places to visit.
Of course, the Sassi are the main attraction, but equally interesting are the historic center with its palaces and splendid squares overlooked by numerous valuable medieval churches, and the Murgia Materana Park with its unique rocky landscape.

It is possible to book various tours and guided visits with professional, fully qualified tour guides to discover the many treasures of the City of the Sassi and its surrounding area.

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Things to do in Matera

Matera is a small, welcoming, and peaceful town with many wonderful things to do.
Even just strolling through the Sassi or the Murgia, enjoying the silence, watching the city wake up at dawn with its changing sounds and colors, seeing the sun slowly make its way over the rooftops and church steeples until it floods the squares and stairways of the Sassi can be a very beautiful and rewarding experience.

In Matera, you can take part in cooking experiences to learn how to make fresh pasta or discover the secrets of Matera bread by getting your hands dirty in a real bakery.

You can visit the Sassi, the beautiful surrounding area of the Murge, or the small neighboring villages by bicycle or on foot, accompanied by expert guides on incredible photo safaris to discover the historical, archaeological, and natural heritage that only this incredible natural treasure chest that is Matera with its Murge preserves intact.

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Craftsmanship - Made in Matera

Matera still preserves its artisan tradition. In the historic centre of Matera, there are artisan workshops that produce traditional and highly original designer items. Potters, papier-mâché artists, carpenters, upholsterers and creative artists have given life to highly sought-after objects, clothing, furnishings and designer items. Shopping in the historic centre, strolling among small shops, bistros and squares rich in history and tradition, is a rewarding and relaxing experience.

The artisan dimension is also very present in the food sector, with dairies, bakeries and delicatessens preserving traditional methods and offering products of the highest quality..>> Made in Matera

Museums and places of cultural interest

Matera is home to the Basilicata Museum Complex, which includes 10 national museums and several archaeological parks scattered throughout the region. The museums and archaeological sites show that the territory of Lucania has been occupied since ancient times by both indigenous populations and those coming from the East during the first Neolithic migration, followed by the Hellenic migration.

Domenico Ridola National Archaeological Museum - Matera
The Domenico Ridola National Archaeological Museum was established in 1911 and is the oldest museum in Basilicata. The museum displays collections of naturalistic materials, ethnographic and artistic objects, and above all precious archaeological finds collected by Ridola himself during the excavations he coordinated in the Matera area concerning Palaeolithic and Neolithic settlements.

National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Basilicata
Also known as the Palazzo Lanfranchi Museum, named after the 17th-century building that houses it, the museum offers an exhibition itinerary that winds its way through the imposing structure in three sections: Sacred Art, Collecting and Contemporary Art. The core of the collections consists of works on canvas and wooden and stone sculptures from the region's heritage. The other sections are dedicated to the D'Errico Picture Gallery, consisting of 17th- and 18th-century paintings from the Neapolitan school, and the paintings of Carlo Levi

Places of culture
In the second half of the 20th century, the city of Matera was unfairly labelled a national disgrace due to the terrible living conditions in which the inhabitants of the Sassi were forced to live after the war. This feeling of shame was followed by a veritable cultural repression on the part of the citizens who lived in the Sassi, was countered by an idea of revenge and redemption in the younger generations which, thanks also to the contributions and exchanges that took place with artists and intellectuals who came to Matera, led to a reversal of the situation and the creation of new and interesting cultural and social experiences in some places in the Sassi that are now an integral part of the cultural and social fabric of the city.

MUSMA - Museum of Contemporary Sculpture Matera
It is the most important museum entirely dedicated to contemporary sculpture in Italy, the only one in the world to have exhibition spaces in caves.
The exhibition area is located in the Sassi and occupies the entire historic building of the Pomarici family. In the lower underground floor, the main theme is the combination of environment and artwork, while in the museum spaces on the “piano nobile” (main floor), a historical-chronological discourse on contemporary sculpture is developed, starting with the masters Medardo Rosso and Arturo Martini, up to the most recent avant-garde movements.

Casa Cava
Casa Cava is a multipurpose cultural centre entirely carved out of the rock in the Sassi di Matera, located in a fascinating rock complex in the Sasso Barisano. The central body is represented by a pit quarry, a particular quarrying system used to extract stone blocks for construction. Casa Cava is a concert hall, theatre, exhibition space and conference centre, but also a tourist attraction within the Sassi di Matera. It is a place to visit where a perfect harmony between beauty and functionality has been achieved.

Ortega's House
José Ortega arrived in Matera in October 1972 and came into contact with local artists and intellectuals. He found it an ideal place to live and work and establish valuable collaborations. In 1974, he purchased part of this house, which has now become Ortega's House, a project designed to document the presence of the great Spanish artist in Matera and to promote the rediscovery and enhancement of local craft traditions.
The exhibition areas house the works created by Ortega during his stay in Matera in the 1970s.

Casa Noha
Casa Noha is a FAI cultural centre in the Sassi di Matera. The structure is housed in an apartment donated to the foundation by a Matera family who lived there until a few decades ago. Inside the building, visitors can watch the video “I Sassi invisibili. Viaggio straordinario nella storia di Matera” (The invisible Sassi. An extraordinary journey through the history of Matera). The film, projected onto the walls, ceilings and floors of the rooms, offers visitors a complete reconstruction of the history of the city of Matera from its origins to the present day.