Audio tour Matera, Tour The Stones

The name Stones refers to the morphological characteristics of the territory: two rugged valleys that surround the Civita and that, until the beginning of the last century, were crossed by the waters of two grabs (these are torrential erosion furrows, fed by surface runoff water coming from the western hills, at the beginning of the twentieth century they were covered becoming the cornerstones of the Sassi road system: Fiorentini street in the Barisano and  Buozzi street in the Caveoso).

The Stones represent the ancient urban nucleus of Matera; the most appropriate definition that has been given is that of "inhabited stony districts", the sense with which it is used in a document of 1204. They constitute a very particular urban and housing system developing in a whirling and chaotic succession of alleys and houses.

The structure of the stones and the functional elements that characterize them respond to the needs of survival and adaptation, only later with the publication of Christ stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi (1945); with the recognition, in 1993, by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and lastly, in 2016, the recognition by the Italian State of giving the city of Matera the title of European Capital of Culture 2019, the Stones have redeemed their way of being by winning the right to a part of something culturally valuable, thus imposing the attention of a quality international tourism.

Congratulations and thank you for using our audio guide.
To be updated on the new audio guides on Puglia and Basilicata consult constantly izi.TRAVEL.

A review for our work is welcome. Thank you.

Good stay in Matera, UNESCO heritage and European Capital of Culture 2019