The Sassi of Matera are cave dwellings cut into a limestone ravine, inhabited continuously for several thousand years and forcibly evacuated in the 1950s as a national disgrace, then rehabilitated and listed by UNESCO. They are also, unavoidably, the most convincing first-century set in Europe — which is why Pasolini and Gibson both filmed their Gospels there.
The living nativity uses the caves directly: several hundred costumed residents staging crafts, trades and the nativity itself along a route through the ravine, lit by fire.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
It runs on selected evenings in December and early January rather than continuously, and the dates are released in the autumn. Matera is remote — the nearest station of consequence is Bari, an hour and a half away.
PlanningA December window on selected evenings — the dates are few and are released in autumn.