The secret of the Roman Thermae

Matera, located in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata, has been recently awarded the title of the 2019 European Capital of Culture in Italy. The ancient city of Matera is steeped in history and is home to the famous Sassi, a designated UNESCOWORLD Heritage Site dating back over 7000 years. While part of the town spreads out across the Murgia Plateau, the famed Sassi comprises cave dwellings and rock churches built on and dug into the sides of the Gravina Gorge which drops dramatically away beneath it. The cave dwellings of the Sassi are the most extensive example of their kind in the Mediterranean. Now, however, the Sassi district has gone through extensive re-development and hosts some incredible cave hotels. Among the others Locanda San Martino is one of the most interesting structures where to live an incredible experience. There are 32 guest rooms situated on four levels, renovated with the greatest care in order to respect their original forms as single homes. The rooms, common areas and levels are connected by passages cut into the rock, external stairways and an elevator which connects the lower three levels. The Locanda features a Conference Room which has a capacity of approximately 80 people, a Bar, a Breakfast Room and Reading Room. All rooms are equipped with private bath, air conditioning, satellite television and high speed internet connection. The Thermae of the Locanda di San Martino pay homage to the tradition of the Roman Thermae and are dedicated to the myth of the Medusa. From the first traces of her existence, the Medusa was variously worshiped as a snake goddess and the symbol of the eternal cycle of life. She represented the cycles of Time - past, present and future - and the cycles of Nature - birth, death and rebirth: as guardian of the celestial kingdom, the earth and the underworld, the Medusa had the ability to destroy and rebuild in order to achieve a new natural equilibrium; she was the queen of all animals, but above all, she was the ultimate truth above and beyond any possible dualism. Carved out of limestone rock thousands of years ago, the Thermae are a ritual site. Guests will move through passages and cisterns in a place where time has been suspended, where the Medusa still wields her power, where sounds, colors and ancestral lights will take back into the peace of the maternal womb.