The past lives again at an unusual immersive hotel housed in the cave dwellings of Italy’s oldest city, once ruled by ancient Greece
iners fall silent as the haunting sound of the aulos – a double-piped wind instrument from ancient Greece – echoes through the vaulted breakfast room. The musician, Davide, wears a chiton (tunic), as do the guests; the mosaic floor, decorated vases and flicker of flames from the sconces add to the sense that we’ve stepped back in time.
This is Moyseion, a one-of-a-kind hotel-museum in the famous troglodyte city of Matera, in Basilicata, known for its sassi – cave dwellings carved into the limestone mountainside. Every detail has been carefully designed to transport visitors to Magna Graecia, as this area of southern Italy was known when it was ruled by the ancient Greeks from the 8th-6th century BC.
Dreamed up by owner Antonio Panetta, an artist and lawyer turned hotelier who grew up nearby, the idea was to create “an immersive experience of history – a living work of art, where archaeology, myth and hospitality combine”. Four years in the making, it opened fully this summer in a series of restored sassi close to the city centre.
Replicas of museum artefacts are on display, from urns to jewellery, while the handmade furniture copies designs seen on ancient pottery – three-legged tables, wall-mounted torches, vast wooden chests. Eight of the 16 stone dwellings are inspired by ancient Greece – high wooden beds, natural fabrics, cabinets with items depicting daily life of the era. They’re spacious, comfortable and remarkably calming (mod cons such as mirrors and hairdryers are carefully hidden from view). Other rooms reflect pre-Greek periods.
