In Piazza Pascoli we will admire Palazzo Lanfranchi, home to the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art. Close to it there is the Goccia, a monument by Kengiro Azuma, and an amazing viewpoint that reveals the magnificent panorama of the Park of the Murgia Materana and the Sasso Caveoso area with its Monterrone peak. That is a natural rocky spur, easily reachable among the meanders of the Caveoso area. It offers a further and different panoramic point of Matera. Inside that little peak the cave churches of Santa Maria de Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone are curved out.
We will descend from Calata Ridola to venture into Sasso Caveoso area, where we will visit, by choice, the cave church of Santa Lucia alle Malve, or the cave churches of Santa Maria de Idris and San Giovanni in Monterrone, or perhaps all three (ticket variable entrance, if you choose to visit only the first, or also the other two, however discounted, because accompanied by the tourist guide). We will visit the so-called Barbarian Cemetery, an interesting archaeological area and new panoramic point, dug directly into the rocky vault of the cave church of Santa Lucia alle Malve.
We will descend to the bottom of the Sasso Caveoso, to admire the beautiful Church of San Pietro al Caveoso (free entry) located on the steep cliff right on the edge of the ravine, on the edge of the scenic square of the same name, like in a fairy tale. And perhaps we will feel a bit like expert Daniel Craig in the incredible car chase scene, filmed right in this square, in the movie No Time to die, the last of the 007 saga! Below us, the groove of the canyon, crossed by the Gravina Torrent, on which there is a Tibetan Bridge. Opposite, the Park of the Murgia Materana with its paths and cave settlements.
Among the alleys and small squares or neighborhoods, we will discover the palace houses, which are traditionally built by adding material, overlap the many cave houses, directly dug into the local rock, the so called calcarenite. Cave houses and cave churches, obtained by removing material directly from the rocky bank, are therefore built according to the so-called negative architecture, We will notice how narrow streets and stairways run on the vaults of the cave houses as an alternative to the palace houses. It will also be possible to visit one of the many cave houses, which are now a sort of small museums, whose spaces, furniture and furnishings take us back in time to the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, in these cave houses they tried to reproduce a testimony of that peasant way of life typical of the inhabitants of the Sassi districts until their forced evacuation, which took place for hygienic-sanitary reasons by virtue of the first special law of 1952.
As an alternative or in addition to a visit to a cave church or a cave house, in the Sasso Caveoso area we reccommend to visit the large Cisterna del Palombaro del Caveoso, dug to satisfy the water needs of the local inhabitants. It is adjacent to the house of San Giovanni from Matera and the cave church of Purgatorio Vecchio (a small entrance ticket entitles you to visit all three rooms). Then we will easily go back towards the Piano area throw Via Buozzi, which was once one of the grabiglioni (ditches) of Matera.
