Tursi and the Rabatana: the Saracen village clinging to the badlands

There are towns that organised tourism has never learned to pronounce. Tursi, in the southern reaches of the province of Matera, is one of them: a maze of alleys, stone portals and noble palazzi climbing a clay hill ringed by badlands. Those who come here find no queues, no tickets, no crowds. They find silence, and the sound of the wind in the ravines.

The Saracen village

The ancient heart is called the Rabatana. The very name betrays its origins: it comes from Arabic, a legacy of the Saracens who, around the middle of the 9th century, settled on this rocky spur, leaving a deep imprint on the dialect and on the very shape of the houses. Clinging to the highest point of the town and cut off by impassable gorges, the Rabatana is today almost entirely uninhabited: a labyrinth of narrow lanes, humble dwellings and courtyards where time seems to have stopped.

These places are bound up with the memory of Albino Pierro, the Tursi-born poet who came into the world in the Rabatana in 1916 and was several times a candidate for the Nobel Prize, turning the town's dialect into a literary language. The badlands, the crags and the alleys you will read of in his verses are still here, recognisable, intact. To walk through them is to step into a poem that was never written for visitors.

What to see

Between the historic centre and the ancient quarter, Tursi preserves some forty historic residences and patrician palazzi, some restored, others suspended in a dignified abandonment. It is worth losing yourself with no set route, lifting your gaze towards the wrought-iron balconies, and then tackling the Petrizze, the long, steep stone staircase that links the village to the Rabatana, striding over the gorges.

When to go

You can see it in half a day, but it rewards the slowness of staying longer. Come in spring or autumn, when the light is soft and the heat does not bite into the clay. Bring comfortable shoes, respect for the few people who still live in these alleys, and a willingness not to understand everything at once: that, here, is the whole point of the journey.

Related guides: Hidden medieval villages in Italy: gems far from the crowds · An alternative to Matera: 7 stone-and-cave towns of the South to discover · Basilicata without a car in 3 days: Matera, the Murgia and the Lucanian Dolomites.

Getting there

Tursi lies in the Matera area, towards the Ionian coast: by car you reach it from the SS106 Jonica (exit for Policoro-Tursi) or, from the north, from the SS653 Sinnica. The reference railway station is Policoro-Tursi, on the Ionian line, from which you continue by bus or taxi to the town. The most convenient airports are Bari and, alternatively, Brindisi and Lamezia Terme. The Rabatana quarter is in the upper part of the village, with parking nearby.

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