Italy's ghost villages: where life stood still

What a backdrop! Craco in Basilicata _{^{Photo: stock.adobe.com/Pavlo Glazkov}}

From of our editorial team

There are places that no longer speak with a loud voice. They whisper. With crumbling plaster, mossy steps and open doors that nobody closes anymore. There are hundreds of such places in Italy.

The reasons why villages in Italy have become ghost towns are varied - and often dramatic. Some were evacuated after landslides or earthquakes, others suffered from economic depletion, rural exodus or structural neglect. As people retreated, nature came - and took over. What remained were stone shells full of history, often embedded in beautiful landscapes. Some of these places are now tourist magnets, others are still insider tips.

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1. Craco in Basilicata: the icon among ghost villages

Craco looks like the stone-built backdrop to an end-time film. And indeed, the deserted town has been the setting for numerous films, including The Passion of the Christ and Quantum of Solace. Situated on a hill, with narrow alleyways and dramatically jagged ruins, Craco offers an almost surreal setting.

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The village has been officially uninhabited since a landslide in 1963. Today, it can only be entered with a guided tour - but the sight from the outside is enough to give you goosebumps. A place where the wind whistles through empty shutters and the light writes stories on weathered walls.

• ViewingThe village can only be visited as part of a guided tour (cost for 90 minutes: 13 euros). here more info, external link)

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2. Roscigno Vecchia in Campania: Where only Giuseppe still lived

A ghost village that had only one inhabitant for 22 years. In January 2024, Giuseppe Spagnuolo, who had lived in Roscigno Vecchia as an ermit for more than two decades, died at the age of 76. The former farmer was delighted to receive visitors and told stories from back then.

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Around 1900, the old part of the village was abandoned due to the risk of landslides and the new Roscigno was built a few kilometres away. Today, Roscigno Vecchia is an unofficial open-air museum - admission is free. The abandoned, overgrown houses around the piazza - everything seems to have fallen out of time. There is a museum of rural craftsmanship on site.

• More info: roscignovecchia.it (external link)

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3. Balestrino in Liguria: Morbid beauty

This ghost village in the province of Savona was evacuated in the 1950s after a series of earthquakes. A massive landslide was imminent. The old village centre is not freely accessible due to the risk of collapse, but you can get a good view of the morbid splendour from the surrounding paths.

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The ruins nestle against the hillside like a wasps' nest, overgrown with plants and surrounded by olive groves - a mystical sight, especially at dusk. If you're lucky, you'll meet locals who tell stories from the time when Balestrino was still alive.

4. Gairo Vecchio in Sardinia: Weathered and mysterious

Gairo Vecchio was once a proud village in the Sardinian mountains. After heavy rainfall and landslides, it was abandoned in 1951. The houses remained - as if frozen in the moment of flight.

Today you can stroll through the empty alleyways, climb stairs, look through windows into empty rooms. The atmosphere is bizarre, almost spiritual. Gairo Vecchio is one of those places that will stay with you for a long time - without many words.

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5. Fabbriche di Careggine in Tuscany: the village under water

Perhaps the most spectacular ghost town in Italy is ... under water. Fabbriche di Careggine, a medieval village in Tuscany, was flooded in 1947 to make way for a reservoir. Every few decades, the water is drained for maintenance work - and the village emerges. Quite real. With houses, churches, cobblestones. Most recently, the draining of the water was postponed again and again. Last time, more than a million visitors came.

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