In the southern Italian city of Matera, part of the old town doesn't sit on the hillside. It's carved into it. Doorways open straight into rock, homes stack up the slope of a deep ravine, and in some places a street runs right over the top of the houses below.
These are the Sassi di Matera, two old districts known for cave dwellings that have been lived in since the Paleolithic period, the old Stone Age. They're thought to be among the earliest human settlements in what is now Italy. In the 1950s, the government moved most residents out because of extreme poverty. But after a 1986 law, people began restoring the caves and moving back in, and today the Sassi are full of homes, hotels, and businesses.
Homes Dug Out of Rock
The Sassi grew up on one slope of a rocky ravine carved by a river that's now just a small stream. Locals call the ravine la Gravina. The homes were dug into the soft limestone typical of this part of southern Italy.
Many of the dwellings are little more than small caves. Over thousands of years, people kept carving, building, and stacking, until the hillside became a dense maze of homes, stairways, and churches cut into the rock.
From Poverty to Evacuation
Life in the Sassi became very hard. By the early 20th century, the cave homes were declared unfit for modern living. In the 1950s, as part of a plan to tackle extreme poverty, the Italian government used force to move most of the population into new public housing in the modern part of the city. The relocation continued into the 1970s.
For years afterward, much of the old cave town sat empty. Until the late 1980s, the Sassi were still considered an area of poverty, and many dwellings remained unsafe.
The Comeback
Then the story turned. A new law in 1986 opened the way for restoring the Sassi and living in them again. In December 1993, the Sassi and the rock-cut churches across the ravine were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which helped bring in visitors.
Today there are thriving businesses, pubs, and hotels in the old caves, and Matera is among the fastest-growing cities in southern Italy. In 2019, it was named a European Capital of Culture.
Hollywood's Little Jerusalem
Matera's ancient look has made it a favorite of filmmakers, who sometimes call it Little Jerusalem. It has appeared in religious films including The Passion of the Christ in 2004 and The Nativity Story in 2006.
It's not all ancient epics, though. Matera also shows up in action movies such as Wonder Woman in 2017 and the James Bond film No Time to Die in 2021.
Cave Homes in Spain, Too
Matera isn't the only place with cave homes. In Granada, Spain, the hillside neighborhood of Sacromonte is known for houses dug into the slopes, with bright whitewashed fronts. Builders cut a flat face into the hill, added an arched doorway, and dug out as many rooms as the ground allowed, so no two caves are alike. Nearby, the town of Guadix is best known for its cave dwellings.
Whether in Italy or Spain, these homes carved from rock are a reminder that people have always found clever ways to make a home, even inside a hill.
