Matera beyond the Sassi: a crypt, a cistern, a bread

Beyond the Sassi, Matera's visits go underground or out of town: the Palombaro Lungo cistern under piazza Vittorio Veneto, 16 metres deep, the frescoed Crypt of Original Sin, seen only by booking at fixed times, and the national museums at Palazzo Lanfranchi and San Rocco.

The Crypt of Original Sin, by booking only

The Crypt of Original Sin is a rock church frescoed between the 8th and 9th centuries, on the Gravina di Picciano outside Matera, and you can visit only with a booking at fixed times. In 2026 there are six slots a day from April to September, at 9:00, 10:30, 12:00, 15:00, 16:30 and 18:00, five in March and October and four from November to February.

The time you book is when you meet at the ticket office, and the visit itself starts 30 minutes later. Groups over 14 book through a separate section, and a private visit for up to 20 people costs €85.40¹ on top of the individual tickets.

The individual ticket price couldn't be verified, because the ticket pages of the official site answered 404¹. Ask when you book.

The Palombaro Lungo, a cistern under the square

The Palombaro Lungo is 16 metres deep and 50 long, and it could hold 5 million litres of water. It was dug under piazza Vittorio Veneto in several phases from the 16th century, with the last enlargement recorded in 1870², and it was rediscovered in 1991 still full of water.

FAI runs it, and you walk it on raised walkways. FAI's page gives neither opening hours nor a ticket price, so the figures that circulate online are not repeated here.

The national museums: one shut, two open

The national museums of Matera have three sites, the Ridola archaeological museum, Palazzo Lanfranchi and the former Ospedale di San Rocco, open daily from 9:00 to 20:00 (2026). Palazzo Lanfranchi costs €10, San Rocco €3, a combined ticket €15 for 2 days and a year pass €25, with free entry under 18.

The Ridola has been closed since April 7, 2025 for energy works and a new layout funded by the PNRR, and no reopening date has been announced. Its €10 fare is still listed, so check what the combined ticket covers before you pay for it.

Across the ravine: the Murgia park

The park of the rock churches of the Materano, the Murgia Materana, was set up by regional law 11 of 1990 and covers 8,056⁴ hectares in the comuni of Matera and Montescaglioso. Its management plan was approved on February 15, 2005.

The often quoted count of churches inside it doesn't appear on the park's own page, so this page gives no number.

A bread with an IGP

Pane di Matera has been an IGP since EU regulation 160⁵/2008, published on February 22, 2008, in the EU class for bread and pastry. The specification itself wasn't opened for this page, so shape and weights aren't given here.

A small city with a European title

Matera, with 59,368⁷ residents on January 1, 2026 by ISTAT's estimate, was designated at the end of 2014 as European Capital of Culture for 2019, the first city of the Italian South to hold the title.

The city's own page is Matera, the arrival at getting to Matera, the law that emptied the Sassi at Matera evacuated by law, and the cistern's neighbours underground at two staircases that never meet.

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