The state ordered this village abandoned in 1902. One man refused and stayed for twenty years. He died in January 2024, and now the square is finally empty.
Roscigno Vecchia is an entire village left standing and empty. Under the landslide laws of 1902 and 1908 the inhabitants were ordered to a new settlement a kilometre or two away. The move took decades; the exodus came in the 1960s.
The square, the church, the fountain and the houses stayed as they were. The old rectory and town hall now hold a museum of peasant life, around five hundred objects across six rooms.
Naples (NAP), about a hundred and fifty kilometres, roughly two hours. No usable train; the nearest station is forty kilometres away.
Giuseppe Spagnuolo, for over twenty years the only resident and the face of the village in dozens of reports, died on 20 January 2024. What you find now is a village that is genuinely empty. Almost no accommodation.
Sources: tuttitalia.it/campania/34-roscigno/ ; visitcilento.com
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