Matera

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Matera
coat of arms
Matera (Italy)
Matera
Country Italy
region Basilicata
province Matera  (MT)
Coordinates 40 ° 40 ′  N , 16 ° 37 ′  E Coordinates: 40 ° 39 ′ 54 "  N , 16 ° 36 ′ 33"  E
height 401  m slm
surface 387.40 km²
Residents 60,411 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 156 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 75100
prefix 0835
ISTAT number 077014
Popular name Materani
Patron saint Madonna della Bruna
Website Matera
Matera
Matera

Matera is a city in the southern Italian region of Basilicata with 60,411 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) and the capital of the province of Matera . The city is the seat of the Archdiocese of Matera-Irsina . Matera is known for its old town, which consists to a large extent of cave settlements , the Sassi . The Sassi have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993 .

On October 17, 2014, Matera was the first city in southern Italy to be voted “ European Capital of Culture 2019”.

geography

Gravina di Matera canyon

Matera is about 200 km east of Naples and a good 50 km south-west of Bari and north-west of Taranto . The city lies on the karst plateau of the Murgia above the deeply cut valley of the Gravina di Matera . The municipality is part of the Parco Regionale delle Chiese rupestri del Materano .

The districts of Matera La Martella, Venusio, Borgo Picciano A, Borgo Picciano B were re-established after the Second World War, partly to accommodate the Sassi residents who were resettled in the 1950s.

The neighboring communities are Altamura ( BA ), Ginosa ( TA ), Gravina in Puglia (BA), Grottole , Laterza (TA), Miglionico , Montescaglioso , Santeramo in Colle (BA).

traffic

Matera is integrated into the trunk road network with the state highways SS 7 and SS 99.

Matera is the end of the Bari – Matera railway on the Ferrovie Appulo – Lucane . A continuation of the line to Ferrandina , and thus a connection to Naples, is planned. By May 2019, the Bari – Matera railway line between the end point of Matera Sud and the northern suburb of Venusio is to be partially expanded to double tracks. As part of this work, the Matera Centrale train station was renovated and reopened in January 2019.

history

Cave settlements
Matera Cathedral

The historical part of Matera is divided into the districts of Sasso Barisano and Sasso Caveoso . The cave settlements in the area are an exceptional example in the Mediterranean area . The area, which has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, can be considered one of the oldest cities in the world. The city of Matera was founded by the Roman consul Lucius Caecilius Metellus in 251 BC. Founded as Matheola . According to the Greek , Roman , Longobard and Byzantine history , which Matera shares with all of southern Italy, Saracens devastated the place in 938 . It came under Norman rule in 1043 , became a royal seat and thus achieved considerable wealth. This bloom continued under the subsequent regiments of the Staufer and Anjou , in 1270 the cathedral of Matera was completed. For the next few centuries, Matera was ruled by local nobles, with rivalries, power struggles and revolts; so in 1514 the Neapolitan count Giancarlo Tramontano was killed in an uprising of the Materans.

While Matera belonged to Apulia or the coastal city of Otranto until 1663 , it was then counted to Lucania or Basilicata , became its capital in 1806, until after an administrative reform it became the capital of the province of the same name, which comprises about half of Basilicata.

During the Second World War , the city was occupied by German troops on September 12, 1943 after the Italian armistice with the Allies. On September 21st, the population rose up against the occupation forces, and 26 residents of Matera were killed by members of the Parachute-Jäger-Regiment 1 of the 1st Parachute Division . In the middle of the 20th century, it was considered a cultural disgrace that in Italy people still lived in caves without electricity or running water. In 1948, 15,000 people lived in 3,300 rooms when the city was hit by malaria . Carlo Levi's memory book Christ only came to Eboli (1944) and the film of the same name by Francesco Rosi (1978) made the catastrophic hygienic conditions world famous. In the 1950s and 1960s, for example, the residents were relocated to newly built apartment blocks. The former trading town and local metropolis became a (smaller) industrial town through the industrialization of the Basento valley. Since the Sassi are now a museum town, tourism is also becoming increasingly important.

The Sassi and the Park of the Rock Churches of Matera
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Matera BW 2016-10-15 11-25-29.jpg
Matera old town
National territory: Italy
Type: heritage Site
Criteria : (iii) (iv) (v)
Surface: 1016 ha
Buffer zone: 4365 ha
Reference No .: 670
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1993  (session 17)

Sassi

The cave settlements of Sassi di Matera , which are located in the old town of Matera on the steep rocky slopes of the rugged Gravina river valley, are worth seeing . The Sassi were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993 . Medieval chroniclers called them "mirrors of the starry sky", whereas the writer Carlo Levi compared them to the funnel-shaped hell of Dante .

Sights include the rock church of San Pietro Barisano , Santa Maria dell'Idris e San Giovanni 'in Monterrone , Santa Lucia alle Mallow , the church of Sant'Antonio Abate , San Pietro Caveoso , the cathedral , the Torre Metellana and the Casagrotta .

  • Sassi from Matera view

  • Casa Grotta rock cave

  • Casa Grotta kitchen room

  • Santa Maria di Idris (center) and San Pietro Caveoso (left)

  • San Pietro Caveoso Church

  • Via Ridola

  • Residential building in Via Bruno Buozzi

Other sights

Tramontano Castle

Tramontano di Matera Castle

The Castello Tramontano was built outside the city walls at the beginning of the 16th century by Gian Carlo Tramontano, Count of Matera. He did not want to protect the city, but to exercise control over it. The castle with its three large towers is located on a hill called "Lapillo Hill" above the old town of Matera. The count was very much hated by the people for collecting high taxes . On December 29, 1514, when he stepped out of the cathedral, he was killed in the street. The construction remained unfinished. Other towers were originally planned, which can be seen from excavation finds. Large underground reservoirs with columns and vaulted ceilings were also found during excavations. The excavation finds also gave clues to how the people of this age lived.

Museums

Palazzo Lanfranchi

Matera is home to several museums , including the Museo Archeologico Nazionale "Domenico Ridola" with archaeological exhibits from prehistory and early history through ancient cultures to the Middle Ages . There is also the Museo Laboratorio della Civiltà Contadina , which is dedicated to old crafts, the Museo della Scultura Contemporanea , which shows modern sculptures , and the Museo dell'olio di oliva , which is dedicated to the cultivation and processing of olives.

Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista
Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi
Auditorium in the Casa Cava cultural center

Population development

year 1861 1881 1901 1921 1936 1951 1971 1991 2001 2011
Residents 14,434 15,593 17,081 18,357 22,069 30,390 44,513 54,919 57,785 60,796

Source: ISTAT

politics

Emilio Buccio ( PdL ), already in office since 2007, was re-elected mayor in April 2008 and was in office until 2009. After Sandro Calvosa had temporarily taken over the administration as Commissario prefettizio , Salvatore Adduce of the Partito Democratico was elected mayor in 2010. On June 15, 2015, Raffaello De Ruggieri was elected mayor as a candidate from a center-right coalition.

Town twinning

  • ItalyItaly Vigevano , Italy
  • ColombiaColombia Cartagena , Colombia
  • JordanJordan Petra , Jordan
  • IranIran Mashhad , Iran, since 2019, on comune.matera.it, accessed on November 24, 2019

Viticulture

Since July 6, 2005 there is a "controlled designation of origin " ( Denominazione di origine controllata - DOC) for wines from the entire province of Matera . This was last updated on March 7, 2014.

Wine types

The following types of wine are produced:

  • Matera Rosso: must contain at least 60% Sangiovese and at least 30% Primitivo grapes. A maximum of 10% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Primitivo and Matera Primitivo Passito : must contain at least 90% Primitivo grape variety. A maximum of 10% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Rosato: must contain at least 90% Primitivo grape variety. A maximum of 10% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Moro and Matera Moro Riserva: must contain at least 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, at least 20% Primitivo and at least 10% Merlot. A maximum of 10% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Greco: must contain at least 85% Greco grape variety . A maximum of 15% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Bianco and Matera Bianco Passito: must contain at least 85% the Malvasia Bianca di Basilicata grape variety . A maximum of 15% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Spumante : must contain at least 85% the Malvasia Bianca di Basilicata grape variety . A maximum of 15% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.
  • Matera Spumante Rosé: must contain at least 90% Primitivo grape variety. A maximum of 10% other analogue grape varieties that are approved for cultivation in the Basilicata region may be added.

Matera as a location

Documentaries

movie theater

Pier Paolo Pasolini shot the scene of the Nativity in his Gospel of Matthew (1964) in the Sassi of Matera. Mel Gibson shot the majority of the exterior scenes of his film The Passion of Christ (2004) in the Sassi, in the gorge and on the hill on the opposite side of the Matera gorge.

Other films shot entirely or partially in Matera:

music

Matera appears in the video clips of the songs “ Sun Goes Down ” by Robin Schulz (2014) and “Spit Out the Bone” by Metallica (2016). Fabrizio Moro's music video "La felicità" (2017) was shot in the Sassi hillside settlement.

Personalities

Personalities born in Matera

literature

  • Ekkehart Rotter: Apulia . Trips to Byzantine grotto churches, Norman cathedrals, Hohenstaufen forts and baroque buildings in Lecce. (=  DuMont art travel guide ). 6th edition. Dumont Reise Verlag, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 3-7701-4314-0 .
  • Matera and the Basilicata (= Zibaldone. Magazine for contemporary Italian culture. No. 66, 2018). Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-95809-709-4 .
  • Michael Mente: Matera, the Basilicata and me. A personal and literary travel companion in search of the mystical heart of southern Italy. Edited by von flügelrad, Verlag für Kulturvermittlung, BoD Books on Demand, Weinfelden 2019, ISBN 978-3-7494-5245-3 .

Web links

Commons : Matera  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Matera  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ unesco.de: World Heritage List . June 25, 2014. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ europa.eu: Matera is the Italian “European Capital of Culture 2019” . October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  4. ^ Station upgrade in the capital of culture. Railway Gazette International , February 2, 2019 (English).
  5. ^ Roy Palmer Domenico: The Regions of Italy: A Reference Guide to History and Culture ( en ). Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 9780313307331 , p. 37.
  6. ↑ Matera 09/21/1943 (Matera - Basilicata). In: straginazifasciste.it. Retrieved September 24, 2019 (Italian).
  7. ↑ a b Ekkehart Rotter: Apulia . Trips to Byzantine grotto churches, Norman cathedrals, Hohenstaufen forts and baroque buildings in Lecce. (=  DuMont art travel guide ). 6th edition. Dumont Reise Verlag, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 3-7701-4314-0 .
  8. ↑ Matera – Mashad
  9. ↑ a b Disciplinare di Produzione della Denominazione di Origine Controllata (production regulations and description). (PDF) In: ismeamercati.it. November 27, 2017, accessed July 25, 2018 (Italian).
  10. ↑ Matera as a location in the imdb .
  11. ↑ Lilja Haefele: Robin Schulz “Sun Goes Down” (Lilja, dir.). ( English ) videostatic.com. October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  12. ↑ Stefano Mastronicola: Metallica: la città di Matera nel video di “Spit Out The Bone”. ( Italian ) metalinitaly.com. November 18, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  13. ↑ FabrizioMoroVEVO: Fabrizio Moro - La felicità (Official Video). October 27, 2017, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Sassi di Matera protagonist in the video clip of the singolo “La Felicità” by Fabrizio Moro: teaser online on facebook: SassiLive. Retrieved March 14, 2018 (it-IT).