Tablet10: Le Grotte della Civita

The latest issue of our Tablet10 magazine has arrived, and we couldn’t be prouder. From cutting-edge modern in Beijing and Bonn to a converted watchtower in Italy, we give you our favorite hotels of the year (alongside stunning photography, of course).

Each week here on Tablet Talk, we’ll spotlight a different hotel from Volume 9. First up is Le Grotte della Civita in Matera, Italy.

Let’s be honest: truly new ideas in hospitality are actually pretty rare. There’s only so far out you can take the concept of “a bed for the night.” Unless you’re Daniele Kihlgren, the man responsible for the original Sextantio, the albergo diffuso (roughly, “distributed hotel”) whose rooms are spread throughout an ancient village, side by side with the original local inhabitats.

With Le Grotte he leads us back to the caves, in this case the volcanic caves in the hillsides at Sassi di Matera. He’s helping to rehabilitate one of Italy’s poorest places with the tried-and-true strategy of a luxury boutique hotel, but one with one significant constraint: no new building. You’ll sleep in the caves, surrounded by raw stone and exquisite Italian furnishings. And it’s an experience you won’t soon forget.

We interviewed Daniele Kihlgren for the latest issue of our Tablet10 magazine. On the history of the caves:

“Matera was important because it had always been the stereotype of the poorest part of Italy. The population was around fifteen thousand people. They basically were peasants, working for the big land owner, living in very poor conditions, with animals inside the caves. After the Second World War, in the new atmosphere, the new culture, the new society, it was considered the shame of Italy for its poverty. So these people were forced to move away by central order from Rome. And so the Sassi di Matera became abandoned.”

And on his goals for the restoration:

“So this is our project, to keep this integrity. We tried to raise sensitivity about the importance of preserving this landscape, these villages. We did something quite unlikely, even if it’s a very simple idea. We didn’t do anything — which is the capital sin of every architect, who always wants to put his signature to the place. Our idea is that you want to see the landscape, you want to see historical places. Except the bathroom, of course, has to be contemporary. We tried to keep this philological approach to restoration, that especially in Italy is very unlikely.”

For more check out the magazine — or, better yet, get yourself to Abbruzzo and see Le Grotte for yourself.

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