Human beings have lived in caves for millennia — though not until recently have they done so with Frette sheets on the bed and Bertoia chairs on the roof deck.
The times, they are a-changing — especially in the town of Matera, Italy, where centuries-old cave buildings, once used as homes and religious spaces, have been reworked and remodeled as — you guessed it — a new boutique hotel.
The trend of refashioning historic religious buildings into digs for well-heeled tourists is nothing new: There are enough, in increasingly secular Europe, to fill an entire Architectural Digest slideshow with churches, abbeys, and monasteries turned into hotels.
This one, however, is also caves. And the space has been converted beautifully: The golden-toned rock provides a gorgeous backdrop to the guest rooms, common spaces and spa facilities at the La Dimora de Metello Hotel. The hotel’s design team, at Manca Studio, used rough-hewn materials, like volcanic-ash rock and plaster to accentuate the texture of the cave walls.
We’d go. And we’d follow up with a stay at Cappadocia Cave Suites in Turkey. And then we wouldn’t come out: The way we figure, we’d just as soon live in a cave until this election season is over.
Get a look below.
Photos: Pierangelo Laterza via Contemporist
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