... Plenty of lovely views showing the best surviving and most complete examples of rock-cut settlement in the Mediterranean region... known as “The Stone City” and “The City of Caves”... the city has quite literally been dug out of the rock.... the place has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and you can feel the history of the place when you stand above the huge canyon and see the houses and churches hewn into the rock... it’s often used to film movies set in biblical times... Matera is the 3rd oldest city in the world after Aleppo and Jericho... the houses in the Sassi were abandoned starting in 1952 when the government forcibly relocated the population to more modern developments in the city... people were living in extremely poor hygienic circumstances... today, many of them have been transformed into hotels and accommodation facilities, giving the chance to tourists to experience the atmosphere of life in a cave... with matching stamp👍 Thanks a lot Gian Luca and Raffaella for UNESCO site nr 2! (✿ ♥‿♥)
The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera contains a complex of houses, churches, monasteries and hermitages built into the natural caves of the Murgia, a limestone plateau characterized by deep cracks, ravines, rocks and caves. The site covers an area of 1,016 hectares with more than 1,000 dwellings and several shops and workshops. You can see the simple forms of the Neolithic caves where people lived 7000 years ago.
The Park of the Rupestrian Churches includes more than 150 examples of these buildings, which can be traced back to medieval monastic culture, starting in the 8th C. They often include frescoes or bas-reliefs, and represent an important sacred art heritage.
The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera were named a UNESCO WHS in 1993.
Stamp:
Matera - European Capital of Culture
(04-03-2019)
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