There is nothing like the Sassi anywhere else in the world: a place where space and time are magically blended; a natural spectacle, but also a setting in which, through the work of man, you can see the signs of different epochs and events over the ages.

The oldest urban area is the Civita, dominated by the cathedral, to the sides of which are the two districts of the Sasso Barisano and the Sasso Caveoso.

The Sassi are a maze of houses, tunnels, churches, caves, grottos and buildings huddled together so as to exploit every inch of living space and to meet basic needs such as the collection and channelling of rainwater.

The houses of the Sassi are all different, depending on the historical moment when they were built and their geographic location. One of the most representative of these homes is the Casa Grotta Vico Solitario, which is now a museum. It gives a faithful impression of what life was like in the rural period of the town’s history.

There are dozens of rock churches in the town, as well as over a hundred in the ravine and throughout the surrounding area and, just like in the rock houses, also the buildings dedicated to religious worship clearly show the various historical and architectural periods of their construction. These range from the Apulian Romanesque style of the cathedral and the church of St. John, to the Baroque exuberance of San Francesco and the Church of Purgatory.

After they were abandoned, the Sassi were revaluated and in the last 15 years there have been numerous interventions of restoration and rebuilding.
In 1993, the Sassi were recognized by UNESCO as an important legacy of humanity in general, and were included in the
 “World Heritage List”, thus becoming the first such site in southern Italy.

Because of their beauty and distinctiveness, for years the Sassi have been the protagonists of many successful films, since they are a natural film set in the open air which many filmmakers from both Italy and abroad have been fascinated by and irresistibly attracted to.