Matera is a lively city where you can be yourself. It’s a city of creative types, music lovers, culture addicts and friendly faces. Matera is also a city where you could plan a family or a couple break.
There is more than Sassi and you will always find something to see and do in Matera. With museums, entertainment, shopping and history, it’s impossible to be bored in Matera.

The Museums

Matera is a great city for culture with some museums to enjoy where you can learn something more about the history of Matera and Murgia.
Start with the Archeological National Museum “Domenico Ridola” where you can see the finds about the processes of human settlement in the area of Matera and in the whole region, some of the finds date back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
A stroll to the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Basilicata housed in Palazzo Lanfranchi will shift focus to modern art. There are lots of artworks by local artists and by Carlo Levi, among them you can see his famous painting “Lucania ‘61”.
Finally, pay a visit to the MUSMA (Museum of Contemporary Sculpture of Matera), housed in the seventeenth century Palazzo Pomarici, it is the only museum entirely dedicated to Italian sculpture.

Modern Neighborhoods and Rural Villages

There are reasons to visit every corner of Matera, but we want to focus on the modern neighborhoods and the rural villages. Matera is made up of modern neighborhoods built in the Fifties to welcome peasants coming from Sassi, each of them has its own character and style.
Neighborhoods and rural villages come from avant garde movements and are packed full of architectural gems. Adriano Olivetti was involved too and worked on the rural village called “La Martella”.
We suggest you visit the modern city too.

Film Locations in Matera

The Sassi have had their fair share of screen time. Lots of movies were made in Matera, such as “Il Vangelo secondo Matteo” by Pier Paolo Pasolini, “The Passion” by Mel Gibson and more recently “No time to die” the latest movie about James Bond. It’s very simple to discover some of the best Matera film locations that have been featured in big screen hits.
Matera is really a filmmaker’s dream.

Matera and the Murgia

In all Murgia there are sites of historical, artistic and cultural interest, very important for better understanding the area, including an entrenched Neolithic village and several rupestrian churches. We suggest visit one of the best rupestrian churches of the whole area: The Cripta del Peccato Originale.

Matera is a lively city, it is as popular for its vibrant entertainment options as it is for its many fine museums, splendid architecture, and tourist attractions. Whether you visit Matera for a weekend break with your beloved, or a longer vacation with your family, a visit to this vibrant city will certainly be a memorable experience for young and old!

Palazzo Viceconte is in the heart of the city centre of Matera: choose it for your stay.