What is Grottole known for?

Six hundred empty houses and around three hundred residents in the centro storico, the visible signature of inland Lucanian depopulation. Airbnb and Wonder Grottole's 2019 three-month volunteer programme drew about 280,000 applications for five spots in the village. Wildflower and millefiori varieties from apiaries in the surrounding pasture and scrub, anchor of the Città del Miele designation.

Grottole is a comune in the province of Matera, Basilicata region of Italy, about 93 kilometers from Bari.

Basilicata · Matera

Grottole

A hilltop borgobetween the Bradano and Basento, where six hundred empty houses outnumber residents in the centro storico.

93 km / 58 mi

Nearest hub (Bari)

2,031

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Grottole sitson a hill between the Bradano and Basento rivers, seventeen kilometers from Matera. The current population is around two thousand on paper, but the centro storico has roughly three hundred residents and six hundred empty houses. At its centre stands the Chiesa Diruta, the medieval church of Saints Luke and Julian, roofless since the seventeenth century and photographed more often than it is prayed in. The Norman-era Castello di Grottole, with a central watchtower, sits on the high point. The town drew international attention in 2019 when Airbnb and the NGO Wonder Grottole launched the Italian Sabbatical, a three-month volunteer programme offering five people the chance to live in the village free, in partnership with Fondazione Matera 2019. Around 280,000 people applied for the five slots. The point of the experiment was not tourism but repopulation. Honey, anchored by the Città del Miele designation, comes from the surrounding scrub and pastures and is the village's signature product.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa Diruta
Medieval church of Saints Luke and Julian, roofless since the seventeenth century, the most photographed ruin in the centro storico.
Castello di Grottole
Norman-era fortress on the hilltop with a central watchtower, the high point of the village and the orientation marker visible from the surrounding valleys.
Centro storico
Stone village with around six hundred empty houses and three hundred residents, the Wonder Grottole programme working to restore and repopulate it house by house.
Chiesa Madre dei Santi Luca e Giuliano
Active mother church near the Diruta, holding services and the parish records for the small remaining residential community.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months when Grottole's hill feels right. The light slants across the Chiesa Diruta and the empty stone houses; the air is mild and the surrounding fields are green. July and August push past thirty-five degrees and the centro storico empties between two and seven in the afternoon. November through March is quiet. Many houses close, the bars on the main piazza thin out, and the Diruta in winter fog rising above the Basento valley is the photograph everyone takes. The patronal Santi Luca e Giuliano falls in mid-October.