We have visited a number of towns and villages throughout Puglia , of which I hope to add some thoughts. But today we visited a pretty hilltop town – Matera – that is renown for its archeological sites as well as history.

More of that below. First a reference to its unusual festival.

The Festa della Bruna is an iconic historical and religious festival held annually in Matera, Italy on July 2nd. Celebrating the city’s patron saint, Madonna della Bruna. Famous for its thunderous collision of sacred devotion and controlled chaos, culminating in the spectacular destruction of a massive, handcrafted float.

Watch the above YouTube carefully as you can see the float’s protectors whip at the spectators to prevent their attack. Finally they are overcome by the crowd frenzied attacks that breaks through as participants seek to obtain a lucky piece of the float for their own. Ripping, kicking and battling for their reward: sometimes a whole statue and sometimes just a handful of paper mache.

Also a world heritage site based on the city’s cave homes that were unbelievably inhabited till the 1950’s. Then the Italian government forced their closure, due to health and safety concerns, and moved the 17,000 residents to the new town. The homes often housed a complete family along with animals in a dark humid hole.

TikTok fans also focus on the area due to scenes from two movies.

A more recent scene from the 2019 James Bond movie uses the ancient streets for car chase action.

But for us the views are enough to make our visit worthwhile.