Walking through the streets, alleys and paths of Matera means retrace the origin of human civilization from prehistoric times to today. Members are places in nature that first formed the natural basis of the early settlements. An architecture that speaks of centuries of history preserved and passed on to posterity through his preservation that have allowed it to survive in the real visibility. Entering this fact enables us to live and smell the past that dates from the subsoil to the surface showing two different sides to the historic character, but similar in the charm of their beauty. For its palaces, churches and the beautiful cathedral at the top, has a medieval or modern look, in some cases, but inside, beyond this façade, which hides the origin of Matera and making it known throughout the world as the "City of Rocks." The first signs of human presence in these places, go back to the Paleolithic and are confirmed by the archaeological finds unearthed in the cave of bats and an internal skeleton of hominid discovered near Altamura dating back some 250,000 years ago. The climatic conditions, influenced by a FLTA territory covered by forests and vegetation, favored the continued stay in these houses cut into the rocks along the natural deposits of Gravina. With the Neolithic, the villages appear entrenched, early examples of permanent settlement, where they develop the techniques of water collection tanks with a bell in the deep ditches and canals enclosed in ellipses with circular forms. The gradual increase in environmental problems, necessitated No new system of housing construction following the model of the court in the well and radical underground tunnels, where the climate was constant throughout the year. These requirements defined the first example of a home more suitable to the needs of the family, starting a model of urban organization designed to develop character in multi-node. La Civita is the first town in the city of Matera, with a higher development than other areas, due to the presence of soft limestone, which made easier the work of excavation of the cave, a process of urbanization interrupted by constant invasions by the Byzantines, Lombards, Normans, Arabs, Slavs, and Aragon, which were held for nearly four centuries the city. The way of living, represented, for these people a refuge of defense where they can hide from the enemy. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city returned slowly to the village folk move with overlapping circles. With limestone blocks are arranged to construct derived from the outside by closing the horseshoe areas of cultivated terraces. In the Middle Ages, small communities east manostiche and secular, contributed greatly to the urbanization process, obtaining other caves with attached water tanks and stables for the animals. Immigrants from areas of Cappadocia, Armenia, Syria and Asia Minor, after losing the opportunity to worship, took refuge in these caves, which soon became places of prayer. The beautiful stone churches, decorated with Byzantine frescoes, art and culture enriched the entire eastern area. Are formed in this period, the two urban centers that will share in the Sassi: Caveoso and Sasso Barisano, with a central Civita. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this vast area, is adorned with churches, palaces and monuments inside the fortified walls around the Civita. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, starting a new process of building the new headquarters of the religious and economic power on the urban plan, holding tanks, foggiali, gardens and tombs that are currently visible in Piazza Vittorio Veneto. After World War II, with the increase of the population of the Sassi, about sixteen thousand inhabitants, the sanitary conditions worsened, making those places rich in history, "National Shame". A comment that, given the front page of the Journal of the South 04/09/51 following the visit of Alcide De Gasperi in Matera, 23 July 1950, when he decided to commit to action with a new reform program. If National became the President of the Council, the return from the visit, he formed a ministerial committee with representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture, Interior and Public Works, chaired by Mr Colombo. In parallel, a Commission, composed of 11 scholars, it was planning to conduct studies of agro and the city of Matera. The project conceived by Francis Friendmann, sociologist, was drawn up after reading "Christ Stopped at Eboli" by Carlo Levi, writer Piedmont. In these pages revealed the value of civilization, and the consequent need for Friedman, to study them and preserve them. In Parliament, meanwhile, proposed by Mr White on a bill no. 1882 had the "cleansing of the popular districts of Matera and construction of housing for farm workers, laborers and craftsmen" became bill no. 2141 "Restoration of the Stones". In the same year-before-Casas UNRRA council relies on a group of architects, including Ludovico Quaroni and Federico Gori, members of the Commission, in charge of designing the village La Martella. Since 1952 began the transfer operations of the inhabitants, from cave dwellings, declared uninhabitable, to new neighborhoods where the old formula of the neighborhood remained only a memory. In the sixties, a new bill, led to the complete isolation of the stones used, as well, to be abandoned not only by humans, but from the entire archive of historical memory. This problem was addressed by Carlo Levi, arguing the need to not leave in total ruin and decay of these districts, but to provide the protection and enhancement of socio-historical Sassi. Sensitive to this argument, the cultural circle. "The Ladder", proposed the creation of an ethno-anthropological museum as a place of preservation and study of human settlements since the cave-dwellings today. Moreover, with detailed studies on the rock churches, helped to publicize the charms of these places, seen the ruins. Only in 1986, with Law n. 771 is expected to "the preservation and architectural recovery environment" of the ancient cave-dwellings to be used both to homes that local commercial and cultural. In this work of development and urban redevelopment, focuses the will of individual citizens want to give back to Matera his true rock spirit, lost and found, historical identity that lives for centuries, communicates and describes the value of this land. Today, the Sassi of Matera, are World Heritage Site since 1993, recognized by UNESCO.
Source: The Sassi of Matera edition Giannatelli
