About
The perfect place to design together
Gatherings are what distinguishes our project, with:
- Meetings between people – travellers, returnees and those departing
- Meetings between grottos, caves, lamioni (typical extensions of underground dwellings) and the reconstructed portions of the Sassi of Matera
- Meetings between two hotels sewn together into a single sensation of living in the belly of the tuff
- Meetings of disciplines and skills
- Meetings between social innovation and architecture
- Meetings of art in all its expressions – exhibitions, music, theatre, cinema
Our Values
Accessibility and Loyalty
Accessibility and Loyalty
We believe in accessibility as a standard and an expression of democracy and civilisation.
Thus, we are able to welcome all, always seeking out possible solutions to respond to people’s various needs.
Loyalty for our territory, which led us to investing in a love devoted to the future of Matera and a different South.
Loyalty to our guests and employees
Desire and Curiosity
Desire and Curiosity
We are all passionate travellers linked to our roots, to our land.
There are two opposing and complementary words in German – Heimweh, the nostalgia of “casae”, and Fernweh, the desire from elsewhere.
Our project tries to hold these two sensations together in seeking to offer those who choose us a place to return or to go to, almost indifferently.
Sharing and Coexistence
Sharing and Coexistence
The Sassi are architectures that have long been inhabited due to being congenial to being and living together.
We are committed, ever respecting their unique characteristics, to ensuring that these dwellings remain alive, full of people, with a creative fecundity, alive, bubbling with voices and actions, rethinking the spaces and experiencing them in the contemporary so that they do not become empty and static.
“Memory as a way to meet”
Why Ecoverticale was Founded in 2022
From a project that took shape in 2010, momentum gave energy to our company, with the desire to be able to imagine and create an environment and a human space comprised of opportunities for guests, for friends, the territory and the people who work with us and all those who want to construct projects with us.
An open space that welcomes travellers, the curious as well as artists and professionals from all over the world, who take inspiration from and thanks to the diversity that veins through our spaces.
We like to think that we have a lot to do to ensure that whoever decides to join us can fully enjoy the time spent with us. We strive to do our best to always better our capacity to welcome, to create relationships and to leave an impact.
Hosts
Cristina
Architect and tourism entrepreneur. As part of their freelance work, they are specialised in inclusive and universal design. In 2021, after a year-long specialisation course at the University of Florence, they achieved qualification as Disability Manager.
Cristina has conducted consultancy activities on accessibility issues in tourism and cultural contexts for the Tourism Promotion Agency of Basilicata, the Italian Blind Union, the Gal Escartons and Valli Valdesi, of the Turin Council for People in Distress, the Matera-Basilicata Foundation 2019 for the “Silentcity” project, L’Albero Theatre Company, the IAC Cooperative and the
Basilicata Region.
They designed and developed the project with the association C-FARA MateraMare, conducting specific research on the Sassi di Matera. Cristina actively participated in the activities of Matera European Capital of Culture 2019 with the project “Architecture of Shame”, investigating the relationship between architecture and shame.
They co-founded Ecoverticale in 2022, adding value to the extensive path undertaken since 2002 with the restoration of Hotel Fra i Sassi.
Vania
Vania’s work as a documentary filmmaker has often involved the dissemination of lost or unexplored assets, especially related to music and science. In 2021, Vania completed a specialisation course at the University of Bologna in Management and Co-production, focusing on participatory processes and proximity networks.
They actively participated in the process of application then implementation of the schedule for Matera European Capital of Culture 2019 with L’Albero Theatre Company and for the official programme, they designed and developed the “Silent City” project by writing an opera on the city of Matera with children and the elderly, a case
study that is now part of their doctoral research at the University of Basilicata.
Vania is currently Chair of European Network for Opera and Dance Education (RESEO). They also co-founded Ecoverticale in 2022, exalting the artistic experience in social and cultural innovation processes.
Rooms
Fra i Sassi Residence – Ai Terrazzini hotel
The Fra i Sassi Residence – Ai Terrazzini Hotel form a truly unique structure, able to offer a broad and diversified selection according to the needs of its guests. The quality of the
accommodation, comforts and accessibility are common to all of our accommodation solutions. The Suites, the provisions and the beds in the small hostel form an entire neighbourhood, close to
Gravina on the Barisano side. Ancient houses/caves with unique architectures, carved into the stone, are today equipped with exclusive services.
With a total of 40 beds distributed over 15 rooms and the small hostel, the two accommodations offer guests a range of formulas and packages for stays that meet various needs. All rooms are within the cave dwellings located in a neighbourhood of Sasso Barisano.
Experience our cultural neighbourhood alone or with your team.
With us, you’ll find everything you need for smart-, remote- and co-working, along with production spaces, meeting rooms and other event spaces. Ours spaces are shared on a temporary, adaptable and transformable basis.