Matera’s landscape and Melfi’s architecture deserve separate chapters.
A settlement is more than a view
The Sassi and Murgia Materana belong to a landscape of buildings and rock. Craco adds a different historic settlement, while Melfi turns attention toward a castle. Look for the relationship between each place and its ground rather than expecting one image to explain the region.
All the monuments, city by city
The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.
Craco Vecchia Historic Settlement
An abandoned ridge settlement, clay calanchi and a medieval square tower.
Pietrapertosa
Basilicata's highest village, Saracen quarter carved in rock, Volo dell'Angelo zipline, eagle's-perch lanes
Castelmezzano
Dolomiti Lucane amphitheater, rock-carved stairways, Norman castle ruins, Volo dell'Angelo zipline
Sassi di Matera
Cave dwellings since the Paleolithic, rock churches, 1950s forced relocation, UNESCO listing
Melfi Castle
Norman-Swabian fortress, Constitutions of Melfi (1231), ten towers, Rapolla sarcophagus, archaeological museum
Matera Cathedral
Apulian Romanesque facade, 1530s stone nativity scene, Madonna della Bruna fresco, gilded seventeenth-century interior
Christ of Maratea
21.13-meter Christ statue, Monte San Biagio summit, Gulf of Policastro panorama, inland-facing gaze
Parco della Murgia Materana
Rock churches, Sassi viewpoint, Murgia Timone Neolithic village, Gravina canyon
Look closer
Tours worth booking in Basilicata
Secret Matera Sassi (Private Tour)
We will visit a beautiful UNESCO site like the Sassi of Matera: SASSI represents an extraordinary urban ecosystem able to perpetuate the most distant prehistoric ways of the past to live in caves up to modernity.
- 3h
- Viator
Sassi of Matera: Complete Tour for Up to 15 People
The Sassi of Matera, the cathedral, the rock churches and the cave house are the most important ancient sites of this complex city, and visiting them alone can be counterproductive.
- 3h 15m
- Viator
Tour of the Sassi of Matera
The itinerary winds along alternative and less touristic routes to discover the most hidden and authentic corners of the historic centre.
- 2h 15m
- Viator
Booking through these links may earn Italia Magnifica a commission, at no cost to you.
Hundreds more tours, tickets, and day trips run across Basilicata all year.
City by city
Where the monuments cluster in Basilicata.
