2026 ~ THURSDAY 5 MARCH

Marco Laterza's guided walk to Quartiere Albanesi - part of "The Future Has An Ancient Heart" series of walks led by Marco Laterza, Elisa Giuliano & Mauro Acito. Matera, March 2026. Photo credit: Alaa Abu Asad.

PLEASE NOTE: Palestra will be our headquarters for the duration of the entire Confluence. Here you will find our chefs at work in the kitchen and our crew at work in the office.The central space will be used for most lunches and all dinners, for after-dinner activities as well as for some aspects of the programme for this Confluence. 

Address: Via XX Settembre, 14, 75100 Matera MT, Italy

10:00 We all gather at Palestra (make sure to wear comfortable shoes AND BRING YOUR STUDENT CARDS ~ on your phones) because we will embark on walks, guided by Marco Laterza, Elisa Giuliano & Mauro Acito and envisioned as meaningful landings to Matera.

10:15 - 13:15

The Future Has An Ancient Heart  

1. Focus: Sassi

A walk guided by Mauro Acito (max 20p)

Mauro will guide us through TAM Museum, introducing its diffuse spaces before leading us into the Sassi of Matera. The Sassi are renowned for their unique cave dwellings carved directly into limestone cliffs and constitute one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, with evidence of human presence dating back more than 9,000 years. These “houses” are largely subterranean, excavated from a soft, porous calcarenite locally known as tuff. In many areas, the streets or gardens of one level of houses form the roofs of the dwellings below, creating a dense, vertically layered urban fabric.
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2. Focus: Quartiere Albanesi

A walk guided by Marco Laterza  (max 20p)

⁠Marco will guide participants through the Quartiere Albanese in the Sasso Caveoso. Located between Rione Malve and Casalnuovo, this area forms a distinctive sector of the Sassi of Matera. Known as the “Albanian Quarters,” it is characterized by the presence of raw cave dwellings carved directly into the rock, without external constructions or lamioni (masonry façades). Unlike many other parts of the Sassi where built structures extend the caves outward, here the habitations remain almost entirely in their excavated form. The visit will also include the so-called Cimitero Barbarico, located within a former monastic complex. This necropolis of Longobard-period tombs, carved into the rocky ground, deeply impressed Carlo Levi, who famously wrote that “the dead stand above the living.” The graves were excavated to the size of the human body at the time; today they appear unusually small, reflecting the significantly shorter average stature of the population in that period.                                    *

3. Focus: Carlo Levi

A walk guided by Elisa Giuliano (max 20p) 

Via Madonna delle Virtù, the historic road that connects the two sectors forming the Sassi of Matera: the Sasso Barisano and the Sasso Caveoso, Elisa's walk will introduce Rocco Scotellaro (1923-1953), a writer often described as the “poet of peasant freedom.” Elected socialist mayor of Tricarico in 1946 at the age of twenty-three, he became an important figure in the struggles for the political emancipation of Southern Italy. A militant intellectual of the postwar southernist tradition, Scotellaro combined literary work with direct political engagement. The walk will continue to the Museo Nazionale di Matera – Palazzo Lanfranchi, where participants will encounter painter, writer and anti-fascist politician Carlo Levi’s monumental painting Lucania ’61. The work depicts the mourning for Scotellaro and situates his figure within the collective life of the Lucanian peasant community. The itinerary will conclude in one of the neighbourhoods constructed in the 1950s following the evacuation of the Sassi, when thousands of inhabitants were relocated as part of the postwar redevelopment programs that reshaped the urban and social landscape of Matera.
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Return to Palestra

13:30  - 15:00 LUNCH @Palestra

15:00 - 16:30  IMPORTANT DAI announcements for ALL students

followed by a meet and greet  between second year students and Alaa Abu Asad. 

16:30 - 17:30 Introduction to our partner spaces IAC, CLAY and TAM in Matera. 

17:50 Meeting at Piazza Duomo (walking together to Fondazione Le Monacelle)

18:00 -19:00 Peter + the 17 Kitchen presenters visit Fondazione Le Monacelle

19:30 - 21:00 DINNER @Palestra

BACK TO BULLETIN

Carlo Levi meets the Lucanian peasants. Lucania is primarily the historical and traditional name for Basilicata, a mountainous region in the "arch" of southern Italy. While Basilicata is the official modern name, "Lucania" remains in widespread use to refer to the region's ancient roots, its people (known as Lucani), and its culture.

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