Kandovan cave houses, Osku, Iran
Nestled at the foot of the Mount Sahand volcano, the remarkable village of Kandovan in Iran's northeastern East Azerbaijan Province is made up of troglodyte homes that were carved out of the soft, porous volcanic rock 700 years ago by refugees fleeing the Mongol hordes.
Troglodyte translated from Greek means 'cave-dweller' in English. These cave houses are called Karaans, possibly after the local dialect word for beehive.
Cave houses of Sassi di Matera, Basilicata, Italy
Carved out of calcarenite rock, the cave houses of Sassi di Matera (Stones of Matera) comprise two districts called Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano within the age-old city
of Matera in southern Italy's Basilicata region.
They have been inhabited since the Palaeolithic period. Incredibly, archaeological evidence shows people lived in the grottoes as far back as 7000 BC.
Unlike some of the other homes in our round-up, these troglodyte dwellings were far from comfortable and extreme poverty and disease were rife right up until the middle part of the 20th century.
The slum districts were considered so deprived that a phrase in the local area was that 'even God has forsaken them’
While the majority of locals were relocated in the 1960s, people continued to live in the same houses their ancestors resided in 9,000 years ago.
Thankfully, the Sassi's fortunes turned around spectacularly during the late 20th century following its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
The Italian government sponsored several restoration and infrastructure projects.
Artisans moved into the renovated cave dwellings, and a plethora of bars, restaurants, and hotels opened when Matera won its bid to become the 2019 European Capital of Culture.
In an average year, the Sassi attracts an impressive 600,000 visitors to its unique houses, and 25% of the properties are available to rent out through Airbnb – more than anywhere else in Italy. The atmospheric town was also used as a filming location in the 2021 James Bond film, No Time to Die.
Serravalle, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Located in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, halfway between Modena and Bologna, lies the magnificent medieval tower and hamlet of Serravalle.
Wonderfully historical, it was built in the 9th century on the foundations of an ancient Roman village, destroyed in the 8th century. The current medieval entrance and lookout tower date as far back as 1227. The fortification, a 19,000-square-foot (1,765 sqm) bulwark set at an altitude of 1,312 feet (400m), played a central role in territorial
feuds and battles against invaders and neighboring fiefdoms until 1109, due to its strategic military position between Modena and Bologna.