Casalnuovo cave house

The Casalnuovo Cave house is an indispensable stop for those who want to learn about the recent history of Matera and find out how the inhabitants of the Sassi lived, the ancient cave-houses dug into the limestone rock of the city.

This cave house has been furnished with original furniture and objects, so that you can experience a real house of the Sassi and discover how the inhabitants used everyday tools in everyday life.

The cave houses are real ethnographic collections, small museums that collect objects of common use and work from the times when the Sassi were inhabited, before the depopulation that took place in the 1950s.

The Casalnuovo Cave house has been carefully restored, bringing back the original rooms and furnishings of the house before the old districts were abandoned.

Casalnuovo Cave house is also a window on the history of Matera in the years of poverty and emigration, which preceded the economic boom in the rest of Italy.

Through the multi-lingual audio guide, you will be able to listen to the story of these years and better understand the cultural and social complexity of what is often called "peasant civilization", but which in reality represents a brief and painful parenthesis in the millenary history of Matera .

The Casalnuovo Cave house is a cave house made up of five rooms carved into the rock on three levels, with a stable, a cellar, cisterns and an ice house.

Only the external part of the courtyard facing the road is built in tufa blocks.

Inside, it is possible to see what the house was like when it was inhabited by the family who lived there until 1958.

At the exit, you will find a well-stocked book shop and an artistic craft shop-workshop where you can buy ceramic objects made entirely by hand by the master potters of Ceramica Sonora, including the famous Cucù, the typical Matera whistle.

In the small atelier you can also drink a good coffee, water and use the toilets available to visitors.