Bussana Vecchia: Celebrating a Ghosted Italian Town
A Story of Resilience and Repurposing
On the 23rd February 1887 Filippo Cecchi’s seismograph was used for the first time and recorded the earthquake that devastated the village of Bussana. I took a personal tour, traveling on foot through some very foreboding terrain, on an extremely hot day, to visit the remnants of that fateful event. Two thousand people were killed in that earthquake and the village of Bussana was so severely damaged it was decided by authorities that the entire village would be condemned.
My tour started in the town of Bussana Nuovo, built lower than the original Bussana, now referred to as Bussana Vecchia. We entered the beautiful Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built through the passions and hard work of Don Francesco Lombardi to replace the church annihilated in the earthquake in Bussana Vecchia. We began climbing the mountain that led to the old village following a narrow dirt path through harsh, dry vegetation. On occasion, unseen critters skittered through the jagged undergrowth.
In 1947, illegal immigrants from the south of Italian moved into the deserted town and had to be evicted by the authorities. To ensure this did not happen again, all first floors, staircases and roofs in the town were demolished.
On reaching the entrance to Bussana Vecchia visitors are greeted by a huge clay face on the wall.
The work was done by one of the artists that moved into the decaying town in the early 1960s. A group of artists calling themselves The Community of International Artists, led by Sicilian painter Vanni Giuffre, decided to live in the derelict village and create a community of artists. The abandoned town had no amenities including no sanitation or electricity. At least thirty foreign artists moved in anyway and started to rebuild the village. In 1968 an eviction was ordered and when police went to Bussana Vecchia to evict the artists they were greeted by protestors and international media. The artists created the International Artists Village. The tousle between the authorities and the artists of Bussana Vecchia continues to this day.
When my guide and I arrived at the village there was initially the flotsam and jetsam of daily life including overturned plastic chairs and children’s toys strewn at the entrance to the town.
Once we started to weave our way through the zigzagging cobbled streets we were greeted by the creative rehabilitation of the stone buildings. Beautiful artistic decals in glass and wood and whatever the resident artists could find decorate the buildings and the streets. Some artists sell their wares inviting you into their cavernous stone homes. There is even a village run café that serves scrumptious homemade snacks. The entire reclaimed village has an air of something magical and whimsical despite its sad history. It’s a beautiful example of something tragic being reclaimed and made into something special.
