The city of Matera lies on the right bank of the Gravina river.
Matera is the capital of the Province of Matera in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy.
With a history of continuous occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic (10th millennium BC), it is renowned for its rock-cut urban core, whose twin cliffside zones are known collectively as the Sassi.
The Sassi consist of approximately twelve levels spanning the height of 380 m, connected by a network of paths, stairways, and courtyards (vicinati).
The medieval city clinging on to the edge of the canyon for its defense is invisible from the western approach.

Yet it was only at the turn of the twentieth century that the Sassi were declared unfit for modern habitation.
The government relocation of all their inhabitants to new housing in the Piano district of Matera was carried out between 1952 and the 1970s.
Untill the late 1980s this was considered an area of poverty, since many of these houses were, and in some cases still are, uninhabitable.

A new law in 1986 opened the path to restoration and reoccupation of the Sassi; today there are many pubs, hotels and businesses there.
The Sassi di Matera was labelled la cittą sotterranea ("the underground city"), and - together with the rupestrian churches across the Gravina was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 1993.
This has attracted more tourists and accelerated the reclaiming of the site.
In 2019, Matera was declared a European Capital of Culture.

Several films were shot in Sassi di Matera, among them: The Passion of the Christ, The Nativity Story, Ben Hur and No Time to Die with James Bond racing through narrow streets in his Aston Martin.