Piazza Vittorio Veneto

Piazza Vittorio Veneto is a central civic space in Matera and a threshold between the upper town and the Sassi. The square's open surface frames the Barisano quarter and conceals the Palombaro, a large rock-cut cistern built to collect rainwater.

Why it matters

Matera's central square is a place of meeting and public life. In a city famous for its cave districts, the piazza provides an open space from which the Sassi can be approached and understood in relation to the upper town. Its underground reservoir reveals the importance of collecting and storing rainwater in rock-cut chambers.

What to notice

Around the square stand Palazzo dell'Annunziata and the church of San Domenico with the former Dominican convent, now the seat of the Prefecture. Below the piazza, the Palombaro's chambers and hydraulic system form one of the city's major historic water reservoirs. At the edge of the square, the view opens across the Barisano quarter, where the descent into the Sassi begins.

Context and history

The square sits on the Civita-Piano side of Matera, between the ancient Civita and later upper-town development. UNESCO describes the Civita as the first inhabited nucleus, crowned by the thirteenth-century cathedral, and identifies the fifteenth-century Casalnuovo district and the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Piano as further parts of the historic centre. The square links civic life on the Piano with the rock-cut districts below.