Matera, city of caves in Basilicata
One of the cave houses in the Sasso Barisano, one of the districts of the ancient city of Matera. Until the 1950s hundreds of families were still living crowded into cave-houses here. The squalor and malaria-ridden conditions became a national scandal and finally the cave residents were moved - by law - to modern buildings on the plateau above. But some still live here.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers, Mon Oct 17, 1994