The Sassi of Matera are not a single monument but two historic districts—Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano—within a wider landscape that includes the Civita ridge and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches. In Basilicata, southern Italy, the settlement grew along a limestone ravine and plateau. UNESCO describes it as an exceptional troglodyte landscape, where homes, churches, monasteries and workspaces fit the terrain rather than imposing a separate urban grid.
Human presence in the area reaches back to the Paleolithic, while settlement intensified from the eighth century as the city expanded beyond earlier defensive boundaries. The earliest Sassi homes were natural caves closed with walls built from stone removed during excavation. Over centuries, residents adapted the rock into houses, cisterns, places of worship and communal courtyards. UNESCO records more than a thousand dwellings within the wider property, but the district is not a uniform cave village: buildings reflect many periods and forms of occupation.
