The rose window
A sixteen-spoked window in a plain stone front.
Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0
**A cathedral on the city's highest point between the two quarters, austere outside and overwhelming gold within** — on the rock spine between Sasso Caveoso and Barisano. Built in the **13th century** in the Apulian Romanesque manner: **a plain stone front** with a sixteen-spoked rose window, **and a 52-metre campanile** visible from the whole ravine. ⚠ **The contrast inside is startling**: **bare, austere stone without**, ✅ **and a wholly gilded Baroque interior** — redecorated in the 18th century. ✅ **It holds**: a 13th-century **Byzantine fresco of the Virgin**, a carved **stone nativity** of 1534, and **inlaid wooden choir stalls**. ✅ **Its position is the best thing about it**: **from its square you see the Sassi and the ravine**.
A sixteen-spoked window in a plain stone front.
A nativity carved in stone, dated 1534.
An open view over Sasso Barisano and the ravine.
Piazza Duomo, 75100 Matera, Italy
The Sassi**An entire town carved into a rock face, inhabited for thousands of years — and3 minutes walk4.9
The Cave House**One cave house refurnished exactly as it was on the day of the 1952 clearance 4 minutes walk4.5
The Palombaro Lungo**An enormous rock-cut water cistern beneath the main square — a "cathedral of w5 minutes walk4.4**Three different positions giving three entirely different pictures — and night changes all of them.** ✅ **(1) From inside the city — Piazza Duomo**: **on the highest point between the two quarters** — ✅ **you see Sasso Barisano falling away below you**, **and the ravine**; **free and relatively easy**, and the nearest. ✅ **(2) From inside the city — the Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio** and the terraces on Via Madonna delle Virtù: ✅ **you see Sasso Caveoso and the rock churches**; **level and accessible**, **and the best place for the classic daytime photograph**. ✅ **(3) ⚠ The most important — the Belvedere di Murgia Timone**: **on the far side of the ravine entirely** — ⚠ **requiring a car (about 15–20 minutes round) or a hard walk across the gorge and a suspension bridge**; ✅ **and from it you see the whole Sassi as one wall of a city** — **the picture you have seen**, ✅ **and nothing substitutes for it**. ⚠ **⚠ And night changes everything**: **the Sassi is fully lit in yellow light**, **and the view from Murgia Timone at night is the best thing in Matera** — ⚠ **but the road is dark and unlit**, **so take a torch and do not go alone**.