Communities of Knowledge and management of Sassi di Matera's UNESCO site

Twenty years after the enrollment in World Heritage List, Sassi di Matera’s UNESCO site has its first management Plan. The aim of the Plan is the definition of a common vision for the site, where everyone can actively participate in its management. In 1993 the Sassi di Matera have been registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List and ICOMOS acknowledged its intact authenticity due to the depopulation of the Fifties, while several old towns have been compromised. At the same time, the history of Sassi, by the displacement, has been suffering from that break which represented a shock for the community, even with the forced transfer of symbols and icons of its cultural identity. Today Matera is the European Capital of Culture for 2019, so it is necessary to process the trauma and to restore community cultural identity, its historical connection with the site, the common care of cultural resources, in order to safeguard its universal value. The University of Basilicata UNESCO Chair on Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes and Communities of Knowledge has among its specific aims: to contribute to the creation of a Permanent Observatory for the management of The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera UNESCO site; to work for building up the role of European capital of Culture assigned to Matera for 2019; these are opportunities for developing a community of knowledge.