Matera, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, is, in the words of Unesco, which inscribed it in its World Heritage list in 1993, “the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region, perfectly adapted to its terrain and ecosystem.”

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.