Tourist information

Today Matera is a destination for many tourists who, intrigued by the city’s achievements in recent decades, decide to visit. The city offers numerous places to visit, unique experiences and many cultural places.

Guided tours

Matera offers numerous places to visit. The Sassi are the main attraction, the magnificient old city UNESCO World Heritage, but equally interesting are the historic center with its palaces and splendid squares in which many fine medieval churches face each other, and Materana Murgia Park with the many rock churches within it.

An adequate number of regularly licensed professional tour guides are ready to accompany you on many cultural and eno-gastronomic tours within the city and its beautiful surroundings.

>> Reservations and guided tours in Matera >> Guided tours in Matera

Experiences to do in Matera

Matera is a cozy and quiet little town with many beautiful things to do.
Even simply walking in the Sassi or on the Murgia, enjoying its silence, watching the town awaken at dawn with its changing noises and colors, seeing the sun slowly make its way over the roofs of the houses and between the church steeples until it floods the squares and stairways of the Sassi can be a very beautiful and fulfilling experience.

In Matera, it is possible to participate in cooking experiences to learn how to make fresh pasta or discover the secrets of Matera Bread by putting your hands to dough in a real bakery.

It is possible to visit the Sassi, the beautiful surrounding area of the Murge or the small nearby 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.

>> Booking experiences in Matera

Handicrafts - Made in Matera

Matera still preserves the artisan dimension of making. In the historic center of Matera there are artisan workshops that produce very original traditional and design objects. Ceramists, papier-mâché makers, carpenters, upholsterers and creative people have given birth to highly sought-after objects, clothes, furnishings or design complements. Shopping in the historic center strolling through small stores, bistros and small squares rich in history and tradition is a fulfilling and relaxing experience.

The artisan dimension is also very present in the food sector; dairies, bakeries, and charcuteries have preserved traditional processing and offer products of the highest quality.

>> Made in Matera

Museums and places of cultural interest

Matera is home to the Polo Museale della Basilicata, which has 10 National Museums and several Archaeological Parks scattered throughout the region. The Museums and archaeological areas show the occupation of the territory of Lucania from very remote times by both indigenous peoples and those from the east related to the first Neolithic migration followed by the Hellenic one.

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 exhibits collections of naturalistic materials, ethnographic and artistic objects, and especially valuable archaeological finds collected by Ridola himself during excavations he coordinated in the Matera area concerning Paleolithic and Neolithic frequentations.

Basilicata National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art
Also known as the Palazzo Lanfranchi Museum from the seventeenth-century building of the same name that houses it, the museum shows an exhibition itinerary that unfolds within the imposing structure in three sections: Sacred Art, Collections and Contemporary Art. The core of the collections are works on canvas, wooden and stone sculptures from the regional heritage. The other section is dedicated to the D’errico Picture Gallery consisting of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century canvases from the Neapolitan school and the paintings of Carlo Levi, which includes the large canvass dedicated to his chosen homeland Lucania 61.

Places of culture
The city of Matera was improperly referred to in the second half of the twentieth century as a national disgrace because of the terrible living conditions in which the inhabitants of the Sassi were forced to live in spite of themselves after the war. A feeling of shame that was followed by a real cultural removal on the part of the citizens who lived in the Sassi was countered by an idea of revenge and redemption in the new generations that led, also thanks to the contributions and exchanges that took place with the artists and intellectuals who came to Matera, to the reversal of the situation and the creation of new and interesting cultural and social experiences in some of the places in the Sassi that today are fully 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 hypogeum lower floor, the main theme is the union between environment and work of art, while in the museum spaces of the "piano nobile" a historical-chronological discourse of 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 multi-purpose cultural center carved entirely out of rock located in the Sassi di Matera carved out of a fascinating rock complex that of the Sasso Barisano. The central body is represented by a pit quarry, a special quarry system that was used to extract stone ashlars for construction. Casa cava is a concert hall, theater, exhibition space and conference center but also a ’tourist attraction within the Sassi of Matera. 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 he intellectuals. He found there an ideal place to live and work and established valuable collaborations. In 1974 he purchased part of this home, which has now become La Casa di Ortega, a project designed to document the presence in Matera of the great Spanish artist and to encourage the rediscovery and enhancement of the local craft tradition.
The exhibition areas house works created by Ortega during his stay in Matera in the 1970s.

Casa Noha
Casa Noha is a FAI cultural presidium in the Sassi of 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 it is possible to view the video "I Sassi invisibili. Extraordinary journey through the history of Matera." The film, projected on 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.