Magical Matera -7
The extent of the squalid conditions in the Sassi only came to international attention when writer Carlo Levi was exiled by Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime to a town close to Matera in 1935. In his book, Christ Stopped at Eboli, published in 1945, Levi described the horror he witnessed – the paltry furniture, children either naked or in rags, bodies ravaged by disease – and concluded: “I have never seen in all my life such a picture of poverty.”
It took a visit in 1950 from the Italian prime minister Alcide De Gasperi, who lambasted the slums as “a national disgrace”, to propel the government to take drastic steps that set in motion a chain of events which was to have a swift and dramatic impact on the city and peoples’ lives.
With money pouring in from the postwar Marshall plan, Gasperi put together what was initially considered an ill-conceived plan to evacuate all the inhabitants and move them to newly built homes in the outer areas of the Sassi. However, many residents struggled to adapt to their new homes – it was the first time many had seen water running from a tap, let alone a boiler.
Magical Matera -7
The extent of the squalid conditions in the Sassi only came to international attention when writer Carlo Levi was exiled by Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime to a town close to Matera in 1935. In his book, Christ Stopped at Eboli, published in 1945, Levi described the horror he witnessed – the paltry furniture, children either naked or in rags, bodies ravaged by disease – and concluded: “I have never seen in all my life such a picture of poverty.”
It took a visit in 1950 from the Italian prime minister Alcide De Gasperi, who lambasted the slums as “a national disgrace”, to propel the government to take drastic steps that set in motion a chain of events which was to have a swift and dramatic impact on the city and peoples’ lives.
With money pouring in from the postwar Marshall plan, Gasperi put together what was initially considered an ill-conceived plan to evacuate all the inhabitants and move them to newly built homes in the outer areas of the Sassi. However, many residents struggled to adapt to their new homes – it was the first time many had seen water running from a tap, let alone a boiler.