Beneath the main square lies a whole storey of cisterns, passages and remains of older buildings – discovered when the square was redesigned.
A find beneath the paving
When Piazza Vittorio Veneto was redesigned, extensive cavities came to light: cisterns, channels, cellar rooms and wall remains belonging to earlier building phases of the city. What appears above as a level, modern square rests on a grown underground nobody had in mind any more.
What survives
Besides the large Palombaro Lungo there are smaller water stores and passages beneath the square, along with foundations of earlier buildings and a rock church. Part of it is accessible; you go down from the square and walk beneath the spot where people are sitting above.
Why it matters
The site shows that water management was not confined to the Sassi: the upper town too lived on collected rainwater. The division people like to draw when looking at the city – here the archaic cave district, there the modern upper town – does not hold underground. Down there both parts are the same place.
Practical
Access is by steps; below it is cool. These rooms are among the targets included in guided routes under the name Matera Sotterranea.
Read on
- Palombaro Lungo – the large cistern beneath the same square
- Piazza Vittorio Veneto – the square above
- The cisterns of the Sassi – the system behind it
