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Matera, Italy — A City of Surprises
Including the Bones of a Whale
If you tread slowly over cobblestoned streets and walkways in Matera, Italy you can feel the very bones of its past. Take your time. Observe and appreciate that you are standing in one of the oldest functioning human habitations in the world.
It is a place of history, beauty, and people. It is the city of the Sassi, one of Italy’s heritage sites built of stone with evidence from the Paleolithic era to more recent finds.
It is rumoured that Jesus of Nazareth visited Matera although no one knows exactly where. Its pre-Roman expansion from hunter-gatherer to pastoral farming suggests a peaceful abundant existence.
Perhaps Jesus found it suited him for a time during his travels, like a much-needed time-out from constant Roman oppression. Who didn’t need that?
Most residents love to talk about Matera and its history. Once called the shame of Italy much of its oldest dwellings cut into the stone hillsides have been restored and now house restaurants and hotels.
However, as I stood looking out over the walled edges of the city into the hills…
