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The Sassi that enchant the world

Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019, and its surroundings have a long-standing relationship with film, due in part to the realistic nature of the area that is shared by very few places in the world. At the end of the 1940’s a school of neorealism actually grew up in Matera. Long before the area became an unusual holiday destination with luxury accommodation carved out of the ancient Sassi, there was a long transformation process that aimed not only at changing the daily habits of the city’s residents but also demonstrating the progress of the South’s recovery to the rest of the country. This is why Carlo Lizzani shot part of his documentary, based on the work of the 1949 Assise per la rinascita del Mezzogiorno, in Matera: Nel Mezzogiorno qualcosa è cambiato was the film that sparked cinema’s fascination with this place. A seemingly endless list of cinema greats has shot here: from Roberto Rossellini to Francesco Rosi and including the Taviani brothers it could be said that the fame deriving from religiously-themed films has provided Matera with a second cinema debut. It’s worth betting that this certainly won’t be its last.

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The locations

Craco
Region: Basilicata Type: Borgo storico Territory: borgo, collina, paese
Matera I Sassi
Region: Basilicata Type: Città Territory: città

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Castle of Lagopesole

Matera or Jerusalem

Pier Paolo Pasolini found the settings for his The Gospel according to St. Matthew in Southern Italy. Jerusalem, in particular, was recreated amidst the Sassi di Matera, the director’s chosen location for the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Bethlehem found its setting in the historical centre of Barile, a village that stretches over two hilltops, separated by a valley, in the area around Potenza in Basilicata: the four episodes linked to Jesus’s infancy (birth, the adoration of the Magi, the slaughter of the innocents and the escape into Egypt) were set amidst the caves dug out of the rock in the hillside area known as Sheshe. The Sanhedrin meet to pronounce their condemnation in the inner courtyard of the Castle of Lagopesole in Avigliano (PZ). From Pasolini onwards and including American productions, the Sassi have stood in for Jerusalem countless times. The crew of the 2016 remake of Ben Hur spent almost 5 months in the city between preparation and external shoots. Less complicated, but extremely evocative, are the scenes shot in Sasso Barisanoand Belvedere in parco della Murgia, for The Omen (Omen – Il presagio): here again, the ancient neighbourhoods in tuff rock are used for Jerusalem, as a market and check point where the main character goes to try to stop the anti-Christ that he himself has nurtured.



 
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Sasso Caveoso – Matera

Mel’s Passion

Mel Gibson’s The Passion used Masseria Radogna as the setting for the flashbacks of Jesus’ childhood. Here the famous scene in which the Virgin Mary, who’s cooking, rushes to little Jesus’ aid as he trips and falls while running out of the house, was filmed. The memory crosses over with a scene of Christ as an adult falling under the weight of the cross on his back, in a completely different location, or rather Via Muro in the centre of Matera. More specifically, Civita, the oldest part of the city, is where Via Crucis was reconstructed and the touching scenes of the Passion filmed. The Sasso Caveoso, on Vico Solitario in front of the Santa Lucia alle Malve complex, provides the setting for the market scenes in Jerusalem, and the gate used in those scenes is actually the one in Piazza Porta Pistoia. The Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet episodes were filmed at the rocky complexes of Madonna delle Virtù e San Nicola dei Greci. The Golgotha and the Sermon on the Mount were filmed in the natural surroundings of the Murgia Timone Viewpoint. Craco, a ghost town in the province of Matera, provided the perfect backdrop for the Suicide of Judas, as he repents for betraying Jesus.



 
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Craco

Christ stopped at Craco

For his adaptation of Carlo Levi’s Christ stopped at Eboli (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli) Francesco Rosi also shot in Craco. The Gagliano (really Aliano) of Levi’s time no longer existed: modernity had brought changes to the place where he, a doctor and writer from Turin, had been confined, and so Craco took its place. The stone houses, limestone rock, steep and narrow alleyways and sheer staircases, dominated by a Norman tower and 12th century castle, provided the perfect setting for a village of the 1930s bypassed by civilization. Abandoned in the early 1960s following a landslide, the atmosphere in Craco is that of another time. Here, the widow’s house where Levi spent the first days of his confinement was constructed on the edge of the rubble. The wide view over the valley is from Craco, as is the small lake where the two exiles took turns to eat lunch, being forbidden to communicate with each other. Levi’s second house, where he rediscovered his passion for painting and sporadically received a patient or two, is in Aliano. Although forbidden to exercise his profession, Levi was unable to refuse the desperate plea for help from a peasant: that location was Le Monacelle, an ancient farmhouse on the outskirts of the rural hamlet of La Martella, municipality of Matera. 



 
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