MATERA, one of the oldest cities in the world, has claimed the coveted title of European City of Culture 2019. The southern Italian town is famed for being a Stone Age settlement, with hundreds of caves known as sassi created in the limestone cliffs that formed a natural defence against predators and later invaders.
Twinned with the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, is it an UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is thought to be the first place where humans settled in what is now Italy. Over the centuries the caves have been inhabited by troglodyte communities and monastic orders such as the Benedictines. In the 1950s many inhabitants were forcibly driven from their cave homes for hygiene reasons but in recent years some have become hotels and other businesses.
A drive by the town council to increase tourism which began in the 1980s has been staggeringly successful, partly thanks to Hollywood. Mel Gibson was based here for six months making the Passion of Christ and this year Matera attracted the makers of the latest Ben Hur remake starring Morgan Freeman and Mark Burnett, due for release in 2016.
Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal was to play Pontius Pilate before withdrawing, perhaps he had had enough of blood and torture.
The result of all this attention, culminating in the City of Culture award which is worth up to one billion Euros in future income, has been a huge increase in the value of caves which once changed hands for a pittance. According to local people, they are are now sought after for conversion into lucrative B&Bs where tourists can enjoy a luxury stay in paleolithic surroundings.
Our guide Michele Zasa said that estate agents, who would once have died to get hold of Euros 30,000 for an inhabitable cavern, are ramping up prices like crazy. No wonder. Cave accommodation costs from £80 – £100 a night for the simplest of rooms, most of which is occupied by a comfortable bed. En-suite, perhaps, but the baths are tiny. Nevertheless, travellers who have tasted the paleo B&Bs rave about them, using words such as ‘rustic’, ‘monastic’ and ‘romantic’, the latter being rather contradictory. They are so small that there’s not much you can do in them except lie back and enjoy the vaulted ceilings; you almost certainly won’t get WiFi.
All of this has given local developer Francesco Carlucci who runs the Essentis Group the idea to create paleo palaces dotted around Matera which offer much more civilised environments for HNWIs to enjoy while still having the feel of getting back to nature. His stone villas have little in common with the caves however other than their vaulted ceilings, which are a terrific feature. They are all bespoke properties, built to order and costing from £3million and they are very much off the beaten track, so privacy is pretty much guaranteed.
This appeals to a certain type of wealthy individual, clearly not Russians who seek fully-branded destinations, but to hedge fund managers desperate to escape the 24 hour treadmill of blinking screens and screaming emails. These guys now seek a form of poverty of environment, where less is more, and a stone villa marooned in a sea of olive groves is the perfect answer. And if it costs £3million so much the better.