Basilicata · Matera
Irsina
A 548-meter Bradano-valley hill town, called Montepeloso until 1895, whose cathedral holds a Renaissance rarity.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Irsina is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 26 min from Bari
- Population
- 4,369
- J10°
- F13°
- M13°
- A17°
- M23°
- J29°
- J34°
- A32°
- S27°
- O22°
- N16°
- D12°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Irsina sits on the border between Basilicata and Puglia, twenty-nine kilometers from Matera, where the Bradano flows below and separates the town from the Murge plateau. The historic center occupies a tufaceous spur riddled beneath with rupestrian caves and cisterns, a settlement built as much downward as up.
The town's civic and religious history turned on a single commission. Raised to an archbishop's seat in 1452, Montepeloso saw its priest, Roberto de Mabilia, then working as an ecclesiastical notary in Padua, commission a young sculptor from that city to carve a Sant'Eufemia for his home town the following year. The statue he sent back carries the old town's own coat of arms, the triple mountain and castle, in the saint's hand, binding the imported Renaissance object to the local heraldry it was made to honor. A hill town on a river border ended up holding, by way of a notary's commission to a distant workshop, a devotional statue that ties its Puglia-facing geography to a Veneto hand and its pre-1895 name to the stone the saint holds.
How to get there
From Bari (BRI), about 1 h 23 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 2 h 58 min away.
By car from the center of Bari 1 h 26 min, Salerno 2 h 14 min or Naples 2 h 58 min.
Coming from Bari?
Coming by train into Bari Centrale? Irsina is about 1 h 28 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Bari airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Thirteenth-century cathedral on the highest point of the borgo. Raised to an archbishop's seat in 1452, it holds the statue as its principal treasure.
Sant'Eufemia di Mantegna
Carved from Nanto stone of the Veneto, the saint stands with a lion at her side. Identified as Andrea Mantegna's own work in 1996, confirmed by later scholars.
Ipogei e cantine rupestri
Underground cellars, cisterns and rupestrian rooms cut into the tufaceous spur, reaching beneath the historic center's alleys and houses.
Centro storico
Narrow alleys climbing the spur to the cathedral at the summit, the surviving fabric of the medieval town before its 1895 renaming.
Belvedere sulla Valle del Bradano
Viewpoint over the Bradano valley toward the Murge of Puglia, the eastern edge of the borgo.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Trattoria Nugent da Mario e GigiaTrattoria
Trattoria Nugent da Mario e Gigia holds one Gambero Rosso prawn.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Irsina is at the end of the road.
- A village of 4,369. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Genzano di Lucania, is 35 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Matera, a city of 59,628, is 37 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 4,369, down 12.2% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Matera, 37 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Altamura, 28 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €280 to €750 per m² to buy, €1.10 to €2.10 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 99% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Bari airport (BRI), 1 h 23 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Potenza, 1 h 7 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
12% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Bangladesh and Tunisia, against 9% across Italy. 18 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Belgium. There are 338 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 49% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Matera province ranks 79th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Altamura, 28 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Potenza, 39 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 339 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 141 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.86% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.7% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Basilicata spends about €1,890 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €459 a year for water, on the Basilicata average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, under 1% in a high or medium one. Under 1% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
MANTEGNA
The Sant'Eufemia in the co-cathedral is the only complete sculpture attributed to Andrea Mantegna, commissioned 1453.
MONTEPELOSO
The town's name until 1895; the triple mountain with a castle in Sant'Eufemia's hand is its medieval coat of arms.
IPOGEI
Network of rupestrian cellars and cisterns beneath the centro, cut into the tufa spur and still used by households today.
LENTICCHIA DI ALTAMURA
The commune lies inside the Lenticchia di Altamura IGP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Irsina known for?
- Irsina is a 548-meter Bradano-valley hill town, called Montepeloso until 1895, whose cathedral holds a Renaissance rarity.
- Where is Irsina?
- Irsina is a comune in the province of Matera, in Basilicata, at 548 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Irsina?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bari (BRI), about 1 h 23 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Bari to Irsina?
- About 1 h 26 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Irsina?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Irsina?
- Guglionesi, Larino and Calitri.
- How many people live in Irsina?
- 4,369 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Irsina a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Irsina is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Genzano di Lucania, is 35 min away. The nearest city, Matera, is 37 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Altamura, 28 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 99% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 548 m
- Population: 4,369
- Surface area: 263.47 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Irsina appears in
- The 8 prettiest small villages in BasilicataBasilicataprettiest villagessmall8 towns · smallest 508 residents
- The 9 best hill towns in the province of MateraMatera provincehill town9 towns · smallest 587 residents
- The 10 best hidden hill towns in BasilicataBasilicatahill townhidden10 towns · smallest 587 residents
Similar
Towns like Irsina
What all six share with Irsina: inland, away from the coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people
The letter
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Chioggia | Everyone is wrong about this town
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