What is Pisticci known for?

Three hundred identical white houses rebuilt in straight lines after the 1688 landslide, when survivors refused to abandon the hill. Twenty kilometers down to the Ionian, where Marina di Pisticci holds the Bandiera Blu and the pine forest backs onto the sand. Black truffle from the clay hills around the town, anchor of the Città del Tartufo designation and several autumn fairs.

Pisticci is a comune in the province of Matera, Basilicata region of Italy, about 68 kilometers from Taranto.

Basilicata · Matera

Pisticci

A hill townabove the Ionian, rebuilt in three hundred identical white houses after the 1688 landslide killed four hundred.

68 km / 42 mi

Nearest hub (Taranto)

16,708

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Pisticci sitson three eroded clay hills in the southern Matera province, twenty kilometers from the Ionian beach at Marina di Pisticci, and serves as the most populous town in the province after Matera itself. On 9 February 1688, a violent landslide cut the town in half, killing four hundred people and destroying entire districts. The survivors refused to move down to the valley. They rebuilt where the landslide had passed, in straight lines of identical low white houses, each two rooms wide with a pitched red tile roof, the rione that came to be called the Dirupo, the cliff. Three hundred of these houses still stand, the visual signature of the town. The older Terravecchia district sits on the highest hilltop, with the square tower of the Norman castle, the medieval gate, and the Chiesa Madre. The coastal frazione of Marina di Pisticci holds the Bandiera Blu, and the surrounding clay hills produce truffles that anchor the Città del Tartufo designation. The hamlet of Marconia, named for Guglielmo Marconi, is the modern centre on the plain.

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Gallery

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Known for

Rione Dirupo
About three hundred identical low white houses rebuilt in straight lines after the 1688 landslide, the most photographed and most lived-in district of the town.
Terravecchia
Oldest district on the highest hill, with the square tower of the Norman castle, the medieval gate, the Chiesa Madre and the noble palazzi of the pre-1688 town.
Marina di Pisticci
Coastal frazione on the Ionian, twenty kilometers from the centro storico, a Bandiera Blu beach with pine forest backing the sand.
Chiesa Madre dei Santi Pietro e Paolo
Mother church in the Terravecchia district, rebuilt several times, the highest building of the medieval town and visible from the calanchi below.
Calanchi di Pisticci
Bare clay badlands flanking the town, the same eroded geology that triggered the 1688 collapse, walking trails out from the Dirupo.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the strong months. The Dirupo white houses against a clear sky are best in the slanting light of late afternoon, and the Ionian coast at Marina di Pisticci is warm enough for swimming from late May. July and August push past thirty-five degrees in the centro storico; the beach fills with regional summer crowds and the upper town quiets in the afternoon. November through March is open but slow, with truffle festivals running through the autumn into early winter. The patronal Santi Pietro e Paolo falls on 29 June, with processions through the Dirupo and the Terravecchia.