CRACO

CRACO

Our Wednesday tour was a bit of a longer day starting with a two hour drive to Craco, also known as the Ghost Town.  The building of Craco started around 1040 with the Norman Tower which was used as a lookout/watch tower.  As construction continued, the population grew to about 2500 in 1561.

Unfortunately, Craco was built on two different types of clay and each time construction took place, the layers of clay moved and water entered.  As heavy rains occurred between 1959-1965, this started landslides and the residents began to move from that area.  The last of the residents were there until the 1980s when an earthquake occurred.  By then, the town was almost empty so there was no loss of life.  The last family lived there until the 1990s.  Craco became a ghost town.

Several scenes from The Passion of Christ movie were filmed in Craco.  The ruins are also used for photo shoots and commercials.

There are only about 700 people living in the town of Craco Pescheria today just down from the ghost town.  Our guide's name was Saverio and he was excellent!  

Before we started our tour of the ruins, we had to put on these hairnets and hard hats.  (No comments from the peanut gallery, please)!!!  The person with the tie is our driver, Roberto, who owns the company we are using.  He is excellent!

This is a view of the ruins from the top of the old monastery.

Another view from the monastery yard.

Donkeys now live in the ghost town.

This view shows homes which were looted of materials from balconies, roofs, windows, etc. to be used in new buildings.

This used to be a bakery.  A portion of the 'floor' to the entrance remains but the rest was broken off by the landslides.

The two open archways are where events such as exhibitions were held.

This is an external view of a home where the poorer class lived.  Up to ten or twelve people lived in an apartment with their animals.  The hole at the bottom left was for the cat.

This is the inside of one of those apartments.

The inside of another poor resident's apartment.  The alcove at the far end with the shelf was used to feed the donkey.  On the right is a fireplace.

By contrast, these two pictures are of a rich resident's apartment.

And this was the view that rich resident looked out on to.

The interior of St. Nicholas church.  Most of the damage done, including the hole in the roof above the two windows, was done by people who looted the church.

A fig tree growing out of the rock.  The dome of St. Nicholas church is in the background.

This is where the key to the watch tower used to be kept.

The above pictures are all views from the watch tower.  Getting to the watch tower meant climbing a lot of stairs.....again!!!  My poor legs are getting a good workout here in Italy!

This shows the variegated soil in this region.

After so many years, the colour in this room (our guide thinks it was probably a washroom) still remains in good shape.  I wonder who the vendor of those paints was.

This is Roberto, our driver, without the hard hat.  He is very knowledgeable about the region of Puglia and just an excellent person overall.

MATERA

Matera is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world.  It is a beautiful place to visit and it gained popularity when scenes from the movie The Passion of Christ were also filmed here.  As a matter of fact, there were streets closed off when we visited Matera because of the latest James Bond movie being shot here.  We heard two sets of 'continuous' gun shots set off....sounded a lot like fireworks!  Matera was named the European Capital of Culture for 2019.

About 15,000 people built their homes into the face of the rock, some homes (little more than caves) on top of others.  They were forced to move in the 1990s because of diseases.

This is the Cathedral of Matera.

Inside the cathedral.

A close up of a crown hanging in the ceiling.  It looks like it could be pure gold but I doubt it.

A view of Matera from the hill leading up to the Cathedral of Madeira.

Another view of Matera from the same hill.

One of the winding roads in Matera.

The above five pictures are of homes/caves built into the rock.

This picture was taken on the hill overlooking the previous picture.

This was an excellent day and we are looking forward to our next tour.....wine tasting!