Items | Caves, Counts and Crusades Self Guided Tour of Matera
Caves, Counts and Crusades Self Guided Tour of Matera
(1) Reviews
Matera
Important Information
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Service animals allowed
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Public transportation options are available nearby
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Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Cancellation policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
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For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
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Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
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If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
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This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
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Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
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Beneath Matera's main piazza lies a sealed underground city — Roman cisterns, a ninth-century church, and a tank that held five million litres of rainwater. This self-guided audio tour of the Sassi di Matera, delivered through an app, takes you past what most visitors never notice.
You'll learn why families paid for better skull placement on a church door, how an assassinated count sparked a city motto about patient revenge, and why Hollywood chose these cave streets over the actual Holy Land. Your guide covers both Sasso districts, the cathedral, and cave homes where families of eleven lived alongside their animals.
Start anytime, pause for photos, go at your pace — no group to follow, no...
Highlights
From 2 hours to 3 hours
Offered in German (Deutsch) & 8 Others
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
From 2 hours to 3 hours
Offered in German (Deutsch) & 8 Others
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
What's Included
100% Satisfaction Guarantee: If you don’t love the tour, write to us for a full refund.
1-year access to audio on iOS & Android. Listen to the tour anytime, as many times as you like
Audio and written guide included
Offline access to the tour (no internet connection needed) once tour is downloaded
Images to identify stops and in app interactive map for navigation
Any physical devices or headphones
Human tour guide at location
Meeting Points
Departure
Piazza Vittorio Veneto
This is a self-guided audio tour on our self-guided tour app. To activate the tour, check your email for instructions from us sent right after booking. Can’t find it? Search for our company in your email inbox and spam folder. OR contact us via support.
Return
Piazzetta Pascoli
Caves, Counts and Crusades Self Guided Tour of Matera
(1) Reviews
Matera
About
Beneath Matera's main piazza lies a sealed underground city — Roman cisterns, a ninth-century church, and a tank that held five million litres of rainwater. This self-guided audio tour of the Sassi di Matera, delivered through an app, takes you past what most visitors never notice.
You'll learn why families paid for better skull placement on a church door, how an assassinated count sparked a city motto about patient revenge, and why Hollywood chose these cave streets over the actual Holy Land. Your guide covers both Sasso districts, the cathedral, and cave homes where families of eleven lived alongside their animals.
Start anytime, pause for photos, go at your pace — no group to follow, no...
Highlights
From 2 hours to 3 hours
Offered in German (Deutsch) & 8 Others
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
From 2 hours to 3 hours
Offered in German (Deutsch) & 8 Others
Free Cancellation
Mobile Ticket
What's Included
100% Satisfaction Guarantee: If you don’t love the tour, write to us for a full refund.
1-year access to audio on iOS & Android. Listen to the tour anytime, as many times as you like
Audio and written guide included
Offline access to the tour (no internet connection needed) once tour is downloaded
Images to identify stops and in app interactive map for navigation
Any physical devices or headphones
Human tour guide at location
Meeting Points
Departure
Piazza Vittorio Veneto
This is a self-guided audio tour on our self-guided tour app. To activate the tour, check your email for instructions from us sent right after booking. Can’t find it? Search for our company in your email inbox and spam folder. OR contact us via support.
Return
Piazzetta Pascoli
Itinerary
1
Piazza Vittorio Veneto
Walk across a perfectly ordinary square hiding five thousand square metres of sealed chambers beneath your feet.
2
Palombaro Lungo
Descend into a cistern that held enough rainwater to fill two Olympic swimming pools — and find the lost buckets on its floor.
3
Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio
Pause where a Bourbon fountain once turned the daily water queue into the city's main social event.
4
Chiesa del Purgatorio
Count the thirty-six skulls on the door and notice which families paid for a higher spot.
5
Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi
Step through a trapdoor into an underground church that links a fresco of a medieval pope to the First Crusade.
6
Piazza del Sedile
Stand near the boulder where conspirators hid before ambushing the count who taxed a city to build his own castle.
7
Cattedrale di Maria Santissima della Bruna e Sant'Eustachio
Watch the Wheel of Fortune carved into stone, then hear why a crowd tears apart a handmade cart here every July.
8
Casa Noha
See a noble house stripped bare and turned into a screen that projects the story Matera spent decades trying to forget.
9
La Fontana Dell'amore "amarsi Nei Sassi"
Linger at the fountain where young men once waited for the only chance they'd get to speak to the women they admired.
10
Piazza San Pietro Caveoso
Recognise the piazza where Pasolini found a more convincing Jerusalem than Jerusalem itself.
11
Church of Santa Maria de Idris
Crawl the same floor where penitents once dragged their tongues across ceramic bricks to beg the Virgin for water.
12
San Giovanni in Monterrone
Spot the bilingual fresco where Christ blesses in two languages — and ask why neither tradition won.
13
Piazzetta Pascoli
End where a poet who once called Matera miserable later confessed it was the city that smiled at him most.
