Matera : Italy
This town has many peculiar and unique characteristics:
The “Sassi” are houses dug into the tuff rock that characterize Puglia and Basilicata. Many of these “houses” are really only caverns.
During the 1950s, the government relocated most of the population of the Sassi to the modern city of Matera. People still live in the Sassi today, however. Until the late 1980s this was considered an area of poverty, since these houses are mostly unlivable. Current local administration, becoming more tourism-oriented, has promoted the gentrification of the “Sassi” and the tuff houses are becoming more livable and attractive.
There is a great similarity in the look of the Sassi with that of ancient sites in and aound Jerusalem, which are as ancient.
Because of the ancient and primitive scenery in and around the Sassi, it has been used by film makers as the setting for ancient Jerusalem. The following famous biblical period movies were filmed in Matera:
Pier Paolo Pasolinis “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” (1964).
Bruce Beresfords “King David” (1985).
Mel Gibsons “The Passion of the Christ” (2004).
