In the 1950s, Matera, a town carved from the earth in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, was declared la vergogna nazionale: the shame ofItaly. At the time, some 16,000 residents lived in Matera’s sassi, districts distinguished by their ancient, rock-cut dwellings, some of which were accessible only by a trapdoor and ladder. Whole families shared the cramped, unlit spaces with sheep, pigs and goats; starvation was rampant. Declared unsafe and unsanitary, the sassi were evacuated in 1952...................more detail
