Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. On the flank of a ravine in Basilicata, generations dug their houses into soft limestone, extending them with façades and adding churches, cisterns and staircases until the whole slope became a city of caves — the Sassi. In the twentieth century the extreme poverty and overcrowding of these dwellings became a national scandal, and the population was rehoused by law in new districts, leaving the Sassi abandoned for decades. Their rehabilitation, UNESCO World Heritage listing and role as European Capital of Culture have reversed that judgement completely: the rock churches with their Byzantine frescoes, the vaulted interiors and the hydraulic system of cisterns are now recognised as an exceptional record of human adaptation. Filmed in 4K, including night sequences and aerial views, the programme tells the fall and rebirth of a city of stone.
