Matera is a concrete example in Italy and Europe of how it is truly possible to overcome the greatest challenges.
After becoming aware of the immense archaeological, historical, anthropological, monumental, scenic, and natural heritage at its disposal studied and researched since the second half of the 19th century the city succeeded in transforming all the negative aspects of its past into positive forces and opportunities for tourism and economic development.

The Sassi, which were declared a “national shame” in the 1950s due to the poor hygienic and sanitary conditions in which the inhabitants lived, and condemned as one of the many examples of “troglodytism,” are today considered by scholars from universities around the world as the most shining example of cave-dwelling civilization and culture in harmony with the ecosystem. This cultural model has no comparable counterpart anywhere in the world, as no other place can document such a continuous cave-dwelling lifestyle from Prehistory to the present day as can be seen in the Gravina of Matera.

Matera was one of the very first Italian cities, and the first in Southern Italy, to be included by UNESCO in the World Heritage List.

A city once unknown both in Italy and abroad, which won the First European Prize for Urban and Regional Planning, has in recent years become a true city of art and one of the main tourist destinations in Southern Italy, attracting many foreign visitors. Today, it has been named European Capital of Culture for 2019, thanks to the professionalism of the committee’s director, Paolo Verri from Turin a student of Beniamino Placido and an expert in the management of cultural events and of the Anglo-Umbrian artistic director Joseph Grima.

Together with the other members of the Matera2019 Foundation, they have been instrumental in the creation of the Open Design School, a workshop capable of exporting a new model of cultural citizenship and horizontal schooling built directly by the students themselves across Europe and the world. They are also working on the Institute of Demo-Ethno-Anthropology, a museum that could be dedicated to the Neapolitan anthropologist Ernesto De Martino.

A city that is changing its identity thanks to the ideas of its citizens, who strongly supported the Municipal Administration’s decision to nominate Matera as the European Capital of Culture for 2019.

To meet the challenges of the future, the city aims to complete the restoration of the Sassi and increase the number of residents in the ancient districts. It seeks to become an ideal place for producing culture, innovation, and best practices through the use of technology; to strengthen the role of Southern Italy in the Italian socio-economic and cultural landscape as an innovative area of the country; to attract new public and private investments; and to establish itself further as a city of art and a sought-after tourist destination for international visitors, a flagship of Italian and European tourism.