In Matera, the rock made way for one of the oldest cities in the world
There are festivities that become so famous that they end up being the standard of the town where they take place. They place towns and cities on the map for the attractiveness they arouse, and they make certain dates on the calendar draw the mind there.
In Italy , the July 2nd accompanies Matera, a trip to the south full of history. That day, Della Bruna's party takes the streets of Matera, and does from the year 1389. If this small Italian city can boast of anything, it is its past.
If Matera can boast of something, it is from the past
The Feast of Bruna is just the tip of the iceberg of one of Italy's great treasures. The first human settlements in this border of present-day Europe are located in Matera, 9,000 years ago. The rock made way for one of the oldest cities in the world. And he did it where Italy today breathes with more temperance and tranquility, to the rhythm of the land, to the beat of the patient dough, which knows how to rest every hour for the best bread.
Matera bread has its well-deserved monument in the streets and its denomination of origin. Local bakers make it like everything Matera grows on the land, cares for on its farms, and creates in its craft workshops. As in the past, with time and passion.
This is how the carriage is built every year that on July 2 carries an image of the Virgin Mary, Bruna, the patron saint of all materanos (Lucans, if we refer to the inhabitants of the region of Basilicata, originally called Lucania), for the squares, avenues and streets of the town. She also does it through the narrow arteries of that Lucanian heart, the Sassi of Matera (stones of Matera), the dwellings carved into the rocks, the old core of the city.
It is a treasure of Italy, a secret hidden for years due to episodes of misery and abandonment and its architectural recovery, which deserved recognition in 1993 as UNESCO heritage, It has become a jewel and pride materano. It earned him the designation of European Capital of Culture last year.
Eustachio Rizzi sculpts miniature fragments of the Sassi
A REAL SIZE MANGER
There are different viewpoints from which the singularity of the Sassi of Matera can be well contemplated. It is a life size crib where we can walk, always with a special feeling, that of the acceptance of humanity by nature, the earth itself.
The rocks in Matera are synonymous with welcome. And they are like private homes or professional offices inspired by the history of the place and the clarity of serene stone. But also for those of us who came to discover this unique and transcendental corner of the planet, there are places to go into the cavities carved into the rock. They are restaurants like Agriristories, a proposal of guided agro-tasting that gives to savor the best productions of rural Lucana. La Trattoria del Caveoso, La Talpa and El Morgan are three other cantinas, restaurants inside the rock to delve into the culinary culture of the region.
if we want sleep inside the rock we can also do it. I Sassi di Teopista It is one of the best choices to live it.
And continuing the walk through the Sassi, we feel the breath of life in it. the of Eustachio Rizzi, 84 years old, it can be said that their hands and utensils have written it. sculptor. With the typical stone of the area, limestone, easy to hollow out, when Matera did not know tourism, he already began to sculpt in miniature fragments of the Sassi in which he himself was born and spent part of his childhood. Today, His creations are the main tourist attraction as a souvenir. With it, visitors take with them a piece of the memory of Italy in that white, porous and light stone of the Basilicata.
Cucù from Matera, a terracotta molded handicraft linked to prosperity
The other item that stands out due to its color, this one in ceramic and in different sizes, is the Cucù from Matera, a terracotta molded handicraft linked to prosperity. It imitates the cuckoo and has two holes that, by blowing through one of them, allow you to imitate the sound of the bird.
THE CARTAPESTA TRADITION
Stone, terracotta, cartapesta (paper pulp) and wood are the materials that inspire art and crafts in the local workshops of Matera and its geographical environment.
The cartapesta does it in larger words. This material, also known as paper mache, is the star of the Bruna party. Because the float that every 2nd of July -and this will be a huge exception- goes through the streets of Matera, It goes on building for months and months. Each piece with the greatest artistic rigour, knowing that on the day of the party, after showing off all that art in the squares and public thoroughfares, people, as part of the celebration, rush to get a piece of float to keep as a souvenir or decorate a corner of their properties.
Like the fallas of Valencia, building to be destroyed, in always a crowded party. According to one of the interpretations of the origin of the Bruna festival, the sense of destruction is the commitment to overcome with the beauty of the following year's float.
In the Immersive Museum della Bruna you can learn everything about the festival of Bruna
Now, however, Matera has for the first time a single car della Bruna that remains. Conceived in the hands of the artist Andrea Samson, materano and architect of most of the floats that have paraded through Matera year after year, it is a float that it can be seen in the Immersive Museum della Bruna . It was inaugurated last December, projected to be an open book on the history of the party which bears the name of Matera throughout Italy and brings together thousands of participants from all over.
The Museum also dedicates a space for the material and technique of paper pulp, in which Andrea Sansone is a reference in Italy. From his dream laboratory, his workshop in northern Italy, he travels to his hometown for several months to prepare the new float each year.
It has been an honor for him to be the artist chosen for make the first cart della Bruna not destined for destruction, but to explain the festival, its origin, its meaning and its preparation. The new museum in Matera occupies one of the dwellings of the Sassi, another opportunity to enter the welcoming rock.
We have two more occasions in the visit to Noha House Already Grotta di Vico Lonely House.
In the cave of Vico Solitario, the life of the local peasant is recreated
The first place shows an audiovisual of the trip to the golden and rich era that the Sassi of Matera also had, until the writer Carlo Levi found him poor, wretched, and unhealthy. In 1952, the embodied description of him in the book Christ stopped at Eboli (editorial Gadir) woke up the Italian government to go to help the materanos.
Social housing was then built outside the Sassi to accommodate the natives of a place that, due to its insane conditions, would remain abandoned for years, until in the 90s the Sassi was rebuilt and revalued until becoming the jewel of Matera.
In the other area of the Sassi, in the cave of Vico Solitario, we will see the recreation of the life of the local farmer in a house inside the rock.
Austerity and total bond with the land These are sensations that emerge from this visit to a place as special as those habitable rocks of Matera, scene of numerous films. Pasolini chose it to shoot in it The gospel according to Saint Matthew , and in Passion of Christ , by Mel Gibson, we will also recognize the habitable grooves of the Sassi.
In the 800 hectares that has that city in the rocks, they count up to 153 churches.
Bruna's party car is built for months and then people rush to get a piece of her to keep as a souvenir
THE BASILICATA
If the festival of Bruna is an excuse to discover the treasures of Matera -it can be reached from Bari airport, 60 km away by train, bus or car-, a visit to the city is also an excuse to discover the nature of the entire region that surrounds it.
The Basilicata it is one of the 20 regions of Italy, the second with less population density. The first, in the north, is the Aosta Valley. The Basilicata is the most mountainous region of southern Italy. Hence we can take advantage multitude of trails to enjoy excursions.
Cosimo Burgy, a young materano, a geologist, who runs his own lodging for visitors, the B&B La Pecora Nera, in what had been his grandfather's house, he is passionate about nature. He organizes and accompanies outings for guests and for anyone who wants to discover the region that he loves and knows so much: its forests, its natural parks, such as the Pollino National Park, and caves with which the land of Lucana never ceases to amaze.
Everything you see in the background? The Basilicata and its charms