Caves, Counts and Crusades Self Guided Tour of Matera

Beneath Matera's main piazza lies a sealed underground city — Roman cisterns, a ninth-century church, and a tank that held five million litres of rainwater. This self-guided audio tour of the Sassi di Matera, delivered through an app, takes you past what most visitors never notice. You'll learn why families paid for better skull placement on a church door, how an assassinated count sparked a city motto about patient revenge, and why Hollywood chose these cave streets over the actual Holy Land. Your guide covers both Sasso districts, the cathedral, and cave homes where families of eleven lived alongside their animals. Start anytime, pause for photos, go at your pace — no group to follow, no fixed schedule. Works offline in the narrow streets. Over 20,000 travellers trust our self-guided tours, and every booking comes with a full refund guarantee. If you want to understand Matera rather than just photograph it, this Matera walking tour is built for exactly that.

1. 1

   Stop 1

   Pass by

   Walk across a perfectly ordinary square hiding five thousand square metres of sealed chambers beneath your feet.

2. 2

   Palombaro Lungo

   Pass by

   Descend into a cistern that held enough rainwater to fill two Olympic swimming pools — and find the lost buckets on its floor.

3. 3

   Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio

   Pass by

   Pause where a Bourbon fountain once turned the daily water queue into the city's main social event.

4. 4

   Chiesa del Purgatorio

   Pass by

   Count the thirty-six skulls on the door and notice which families paid for a higher spot.

5. 5

   Stop 5

   Pass by

   Step through a trapdoor into an underground church that links a fresco of a medieval pope to the First Crusade.

6. 6

   Piazza del Sedile

   Pass by

   Stand near the boulder where conspirators hid before ambushing the count who taxed a city to build his own castle.

7. 7

   Stop 7

   Pass by

   Watch the Wheel of Fortune carved into stone, then hear why a crowd tears apart a handmade cart here every July.

8. 8

   Casa Noha

   Pass by

   See a noble house stripped bare and turned into a screen that projects the story Matera spent decades trying to forget.

9. 9

   La Fontana Dell'amore "amarsi Nei Sassi"

   Pass by

   Linger at the fountain where young men once waited for the only chance they'd get to speak to the women they admired.

10. 10

    Piazza San Pietro Caveoso

    Pass by

    Recognise the piazza where Pasolini found a more convincing Jerusalem than Jerusalem itself.

11. 11

    Church of Santa Maria de Idris

    Pass by

    Crawl the same floor where penitents once dragged their tongues across ceramic bricks to beg the Virgin for water.

12. 12

    San Giovanni in Monterrone

    Pass by

    Spot the bilingual fresco where Christ blesses in two languages — and ask why neither tradition won.

13. 13

    Stop 13

    Pass by

    End where a poet who once called Matera miserable later confessed it was the city that smiled at him most.

• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.