Information Matera
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Matera is a town and a province in the region of Basilicata, sometimes referred to as Lucania, in the south of Italy. Apart from an economy which has traditionally been based on agriculture, in the late 1990s the major economic base of Matera, and of surrounding cities, is the production of upholstery furniture. At the beginning of the 21st century, the town had a population of 57,785 (2001 census). The province of Matera covers an area of 3,447 sq. km, with a 2001 population of 204,239. Matera had gained international fame for its ancient town, the so-called "Sassi di Matera" (meaning "stones of Matera") which is a prehistorical (troglodyte) settlement, and is suspected to be one of the first human settlements in Italy. This ancient town lays over a small canyon, which has been dug in the course of years by a small water stream, called "Gravina". 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. * The streets in some parts of the "Sassi" often are located on the rooftops of other houses, because the ancient town had grown in height on one border of the ravine created by the "Gravina". * 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. The municipal district of Matera is in the region/district of Basilicata and it's in the province of Matera. the postcode is 75100 and the code number is +39 0835. Inhabitants are 57.075 and the surface is about 388 km2, with a density of population about 147 people for km2. Distance: from Rome 370 km, from Florence 559 km and from Venice 634 km.
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