Do ghost towns really die out?
View of Allianello awarded 1st Place on the ARL Photo Context 21 by May East
Defined as towns or villages that have been abandoned by their original inhabitants, ghost towns are a sub-product of the opposing conditions of excessive urban growth on the one hand and the decline of rural regions on the other. A true ghost town is a location where buildings still stand even though the population no longer exists. Florin poetically defines a ghost town as ‘a shadowy semblance of its former self’.
“Filled with the presence of absences. What appears designates what is no more... what can no longer be seen.”
History of ghost towns
Throughout history and across many countries thousands of towns were abandoned for a variety of reasons. A town often becomes a ghost town because the natural resources and economic activity that supported its existence have failed to endure. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, floods and fires, government neglect, armed conflict, disease and environmental contamination are repeatedly the drivers for abandonment. Often it is a combination of factors that cause the town to lose its population, fading away in time and transforming itself into a place held only in the memory of those who lived there.
Tocco Caudio a town for which the reason for being no longer exists by May East
Changing Times – Changing Spaces- ARL International Photo Contest 2021
An increasing large concentration of these abandoned small villages is found in the Southern regions of Italy.
To investigate the regenerative potential of these settlements, I have visited a series of abandoned villages over time and attempted to define a ghost town typology.
Some of the exemplar approaches of bringing life back to the villages include:
A community-led approach to ecological restoration demonstrated by the medieval village Torri Superiore embedded in ecovillage principles;
The hospitality concept albergo diffuso demonstrated by Albergo Diffuso Borgo di Castelvetere, acting as social, cultural and economic stimuli to depopulated villages.
Recently the picture View of Allianello was awarded 1st place in the ARL International Photo Contest 2021 Changing Times – Changing Space under the category Demographic and socio-economic change. The photos of the competition address the spatial implications of global challenges such as climate change, the energy transition and demographic change.
Allianello Vecchio is from one of the many ghost towns that I researched in Southern Italy.
“Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.”
Torri Superiore embodying the regenerative potential of abandoned towns
Torri Superiore
In Italy there are over 5,000 abandoned small villages. One of them is the 13th-century medieval village of Torri Superiore described as a little jewel of popular architecture, situated in the foothills of the Ligurian Alps, a few kilometres from both the Mediterranean Sea and the French border, close to the coastal town of Ventimiglia.
Built completely in local stone and lime over the course of many centuries, the village presents a unique urban layout with a complex structure of three main buildings developed on eight levels and comprising 162 rooms linked to each other through an exceptionally intricate and labyrinthine system of stairways, alleys and terraces.
“To penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery - back, back down the old ways of time. Strange and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of complete forgetfulness.”
In the late 80’s, a group of academics, professionals and enthusiasts began the process of negotiating the purchase of the abandoned village and setting up a cultural association and sustainable community. Early in the project, the decision was made to renew the building in line with ecological principles and materials wherever possible while respecting the original character.
After 25 years of renovation, the ruins of the ghost settlement were given a new lease of life as an ecovillage and visitor attraction, with many ecological features including the general retrofitting of the village into a cultural centre with guest facilities and apartments for residents; a combined central solar/wood/gas heating system that functions at low temperature under the floor and on the walls; permaculture gardens and fruit orchards and organically farmed olive groves.
With a comprehensive social architecture built over time, a question remains whether community-led approaches such as Torri Superiore could support the rehabilitation of abandoned villages in Southern Italy creating a swift response to the increasing demand for housing amid growing waves of migrants.
Albergo Diffuso Borgo di Castelvedere unleashing the regional-sourced potential of regeneration by May East
Albergo Diffuso
In Italy the tourism industry has become one of the strategies for the recovery of abandoned settlements in the Southern region, with a direct impact on the identity and occupation of historic urban landscapes. In the early 1980s, the hospitality concept of Albergo Diffuso (AD) was introduced to revive historic Italian villages and town centres by revitalizing various historic buildings, thus attracting tourism to uncommon destinations.
Translated as ‘scattered hotel’, AD offers guests the experience of living in historic sites in rooms scattered throughout different buildings within a village, overseen by a central management structure and hosted by a small community. Unlike a normal hotel, whose facilities are found in a single building, this model of hospitality consists of several units linked to each other within a range of not more than 200 meters. The concept was developed by the Italian scholar Giancarlo Dall’Ara, who defined AD as both an original model of hospitality and an approach toward sustainability.
Scattered hotels, argues Dall'Ara, are healthy for the host villages, because they act as social, cultural and economic stimuli. He calls them ‘drivers of development’ because everything is sourced in the region, involving the residents and local producers, thus preventing depopulation.
According to Bulgarelli, this unique model of tourism development for historic sites does not produce negative environmental impacts, since it grows with the demand, as rooms are ‘regenerated’ and added to the existing network as necessary.
To date, there are over 50 Italian ‘Alberghi Diffusi’ grouped under a National Association while 13 Italian regions have adopted legislation regulating the concept. The Albergo Diffuso model has been used in villages in the process of depopulation with good results, though it seems less effective in completely abandoned villages.
10 Ghost Towns to Visit in Italy
Allianello Vecchio, Matera
Craco, Basilicata
Pentedatillo, Calabria
Balestrino, Liguria
Argentiera, Sardinia
Poggioreale, Sicily
San Pietro Infine, Caserta
Tocco Caudio, Benevento
Apice Vecchia, Benevento
Caianello Vecchio, Caserta
Conclusion
Ghost towns tell of a time not far away, still present in the collective memory, where settlements were embedded in landscapes in a rich tapestry of cultural and natural values woven over time. Today they are the silent testimony of a time when culture and identity, geography and topography, diversity and exchange were eloquently expressed in a scale appropriate to the bioregion. Tomorrow they may become the living statements of a time when humanity re-ignited the locally adaptable, culturally rooted, energy-conserving, technologically appropriate, inter-generationally balanced, place-based values and practices needed for historic rural settlements to thrive.
Apice Vecchia hit by two earthquakes “where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure” by May East