Fifty years after Italy’s Matera was a national embarrassment because of its extreme poverty, the city is rescuing its dignity, baroque palaces and cave churches to become a European Capital of Culture.
"Yes, it’s true, we went from shame to glory," Matera mayor Raffaello De Ruggieri told journalists ahead of the southern city’s year-long stint as a European Union-designated cultural crossroads in 2019.
In the 1950s, prime minister Alcide De Gasperi, one of the EU’s founding fathers, was outraged by Matera’s underdevelopment, where many lived in ancient limestone caves without electricity or running water, lives ravaged by malaria.
Now, the city in the Basilicata region on the instep of Italy’s boot, is hoping to draw thousands of visitors for cultural and heritage events, many inside the same caves, now renovated.
"We want people who decide to come to Matera to live an experience," said Paolo Verri, director of the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation.
The city, one of the world’s oldest, is known as the "Occupied Al-Quds of the West" thanks to its position perched on limestone rocks and ravines and its famous "sassi" cave homes
"Archaeological remains show that people have been here for 8,000 years," said mayor De Ruggieri.
"That’s why we want ‘slow’ tourism," said Verri, rejecting the mass tourism of a one-day camera snapping visit in favour of getting art and culture lovers to come for longer spells.
To achieve that, around 300 cultural performances, workshops, exhibitions and conferences are being organised, from music to food to readings.
"Everyone can bring something, such as a book, and explain why they want to improve European culture," said Verri, who hopes the result will be a vast library of European heritage.
The relatively isolated city, with no airport, high-speed train station or even a motorway, hopes visitors will be inspired by the mystical atmosphere to write, sculpt and create music or installations which will in turn become an exhibit.
