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Offered languages
- German
- Portuguese
- English
- Italian
- French
- Dutch
- Spanish
Beneath Matera's main piazza lies a sealed underground city — Roman cisterns, a ninth-century church, and a tank that held five million litres of rainwater. This self-guided audio tour of the Sassi di Matera, delivered through an app, takes you past what most visitors never notice.
You'll learn why families paid for better skull placement on a church door, how an assassinated count sparked a city motto about patient revenge, and why Hollywood chose these cave streets over the actual Holy Land. Your guide covers both Sasso districts, the cathedral, and cave homes where families of eleven lived alongside their animals.
Start anytime, pause for photos, go at your pace — no group to follow, no fixed schedule. Works offline in the narrow streets. Over 20,000 travellers trust our self-guided tours, and every booking comes with a full refund guarantee. If you want to understand Matera rather than just photograph it, this Matera walking tour is built for exactly that.
What's Included
Meeting and pickup
This is a self-guided audio tour on our self-guided tour app. To activate the tour, check your email for instructions from us sent right after booking. Can’t find it? Search for our company in your email inbox and spam folder. OR contact us via support.
Itinerary
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Piazza Vittorio Veneto (Pass by)
Walk across a perfectly ordinary square hiding five thousand square metres of sealed chambers beneath your feet.
Admission ticket free -
(Pass by)
Descend into a cistern that held enough rainwater to fill two Olympic swimming pools — and find the lost buckets on its floor.
Admission ticket free -
Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio (Pass by)
Pause where a Bourbon fountain once turned the daily water queue into the city's main social event.
Admission ticket free -
Chiesa del Purgatorio (Pass by)
Count the thirty-six skulls on the door and notice which families paid for a higher spot.
Admission ticket free -
Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi (Pass by)
Step through a trapdoor into an underground church that links a fresco of a medieval pope to the First Crusade.
Admission ticket free -
Piazza del Sedile (Pass by)
Stand near the boulder where conspirators hid before ambushing the count who taxed a city to build his own castle.
Admission ticket free -
Cathedral of Maria Santissima of the Bruna & Sant'Eustachio (Pass by)
Watch the Wheel of Fortune carved into stone, then hear why a crowd tears apart a handmade cart here every July.
Admission ticket free -
(Pass by)
See a noble house stripped bare and turned into a screen that projects the story Matera spent decades trying to forget.
Admission ticket free -
(Pass by)
Linger at the fountain where young men once waited for the only chance they'd get to speak to the women they admired.
Admission ticket free -
Piazza San Pietro Caveoso (Pass by)
Recognise the piazza where Pasolini found a more convincing Jerusalem than Jerusalem itself.
Admission ticket free -
(Pass by)
Crawl the same floor where penitents once dragged their tongues across ceramic bricks to beg the Virgin for water.
Admission ticket free -
(Pass by)
Spot the bilingual fresco where Christ blesses in two languages — and ask why neither tradition won.
Admission ticket free -
(Pass by)
End where a poet who once called Matera miserable later confessed it was the city that smiled at him most.
Admission ticket free
Additional info
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Tags
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Cancellation Policy
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
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