Italy has approximately 2,000 abandoned borghi (medieval villages and small towns) — the highest density of abandoned historic settlements of any country in Europe — the result of the specific Italian rural depopulation of the 20th century: the postwar industrial migration from the rural south and mountain interior to the northern industrial cities, the agricultural mechanisation that made the terraced mountainside vineyards and olive groves economically unviable, and the specific Apennine earthquake risk that caused wholesale abandonment of entire communities after specific seismic events. The Italian abandoned place is not a curiosity or a ruin — it is a specific geographic and demographic document of one of the most significant population movements of the 20th century. Italy guide
Plan my Italy trip →Civita di Bagnoregio: 11 permanent residents; 500,000 visitors/year; EUR 5 bridge entry | Craco (Basilicata): Evacuated 1963; The Passion of the Christ + James Bond films | Pentedattilo (Calabria): Abandoned 1971; cliffside ruins; free access | Apice Vecchio (Campania): Evacuated 1980 earthquake; frozen in time | Italy abandoned borghi total: Approximately 2,000
Civita di Bagnoregio (the Province of Viterbo, Lazio — 120 km north of Rome by car via the A1 motorway; the 'dying city' of the specific Italian tufa-erosion abandonment; EUR 5 bridge crossing fee; open daily; the pedestrian bridge from the Bagnoregio town to the Civita plateau is the only access for the general public): Civita sits on a tufa plateau — a cylinder of compressed volcanic ash approximately 250 metres in diameter and 30 metres high, rising from the Calanchi valley (the specific eroded clay badlands of the Viterbo area, the steeply eroded white clay hills that look like a moon landscape). The tufa plateau is eroding: the water penetrates the tufa cracks, expands when it freezes, and breaks off sections of the plateau in the specific tufa collapse cycle. Civita has been eroding since at least the 15th century — the original medieval town, which was similar in size to Bagnoregio town, has lost approximately 40% of its surface area to erosion since then. The specific population decline: 1,200 residents in the 19th century; approximately 100 in 1950; approximately 15 in 1980; and 11 permanent residents in 2026 (most are elderly; the specific year-round inhabitants of Civita are a specific micro-community who have refused to leave). The paradox: 500,000 tourists per year cross the 300-metre pedestrian suspension bridge to visit the 11-resident ghost town — a EUR 5 entry fee on the bridge generates approximately EUR 2.5 million annually for the Bagnoregio municipality. The Civita cultural irony: the dying city is economically more alive than at any point in its history because of the tourist fee. Lazio guide
Craco (Basilicata — the abandoned hilltop town in the Matera province, approximately 75 km southwest of Matera by car): evacuated in 1963 after a landslide that began undermining the foundations of the medieval hill town. The Craco evacuation was initially presented as temporary; the residents were relocated to Craco Peschiera (the modern town 5 km below on the plain) with the expectation of returning when the slope was stabilised. The stabilisation never came — subsequent landslides in 1972, 1980 (the same Irpinia earthquake that destroyed much of Basilicata), and 2010 extended and deepened the instability. The abandoned Craco is accessible by guided tours organised by the Craco Società Civile (check cracosocietacivile.it for booking; EUR 8-10; guided groups only; the ruins require a guide for safety navigation). The Craco film history: the town was used as a location for multiple international film productions — the most significant: The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004, filmed in the specific Craco alley and piazza locations); Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008, the James Bond film using Craco as the general location backdrop for the scenes set in 'Bolivia'). The Italian ghost town phenomenon: approximately 2,000 Italian borghi are classified as 'borghi in via di spopolamento' (villages in the process of depopulation) — the specific Italian demographic crisis of rural abandonment is most acute in: Basilicata (the most depopulated Italian region; the Province of Matera has lost 30% of its population since 1950); Calabria; the inland Sicilian provinces (Enna, Caltanissetta); and the Apennine mountain zones of Abruzzo, Molise, and the Marche. The Italian government's 1-euro house programme (borghi.gov.it — the initiative that sells houses in qualifying abandoned borghi for EUR 1 to buyers who commit to restoration within 3 years) has attracted international media attention since 2019 but faces specific practical limitations: the 1-euro houses are typically in borghi with no hospital, no school, and no reliable internet infrastructure.
Civita di Bagnoregio (Province of Viterbo, Lazio — 120 km north of Rome; EUR 5 bridge crossing fee; open daily) is a medieval hilltop village sitting on an eroding tufa plateau that has been losing surface area to erosion for 500 years. Currently 11 permanent residents (from 1,200 in the 19th century). The irony: 500,000 tourists/year cross the 300-metre pedestrian bridge to visit the dying ghost town — the EUR 5 bridge fee generates approximately EUR 2.5 million/year for the Bagnoregio municipality, making the dying city economically more active than at any point in its history. Access: by car from Rome via A1 motorway to Orvieto exit, then 20 km to Bagnoregio (no direct public transport).
Craco (Basilicata — 75 km southwest of Matera; guided tours only via cracosocietacivile.it; EUR 8-10): a medieval hilltop town evacuated in 1963 after landslides undermined the foundations; subsequent slides in 1972, 1980, and 2010 prevented return. The 1,800 residents relocated to Craco Peschiera on the plain below. Craco has been used as a film location: The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004) and Quantum of Solace (James Bond, 2008) both used the abandoned ruins. The specific Craco visual: the entire 13th-15th century hilltop town standing empty and partially collapsed above the valley — the most cinematically dramatic Italian ghost town.
Italy has approximately 2,000 abandoned borghi — the highest density of abandoned historic settlements in Europe — because of the specific combination of: the postwar industrial migration (the southern rural population moved to the northern industrial cities of Turin, Milan, and Genova in the 1950s-1970s — the 'miracle economy' industrial triangle attracted 4 million southern migrants); agricultural mechanisation (the terraced mountain vineyards and olive groves were abandoned when mechanised flat-land farming became economically superior); the Apennine earthquake risk (specific seismic events — the 1908 Messina earthquake, the 1968 Belice earthquake, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake — caused wholesale evacuations that became permanent); and the specific Italian 'campanilismo' (the attachment to the specific hometown community) which paradoxically accelerated abandonment when the specific community was disrupted.
The Italian 1-euro house programme (borghi.gov.it — the government-coordinated initiative allowing specific abandoned borghi to sell uninhabited and derelict houses for EUR 1 to buyers who commit to restoration within a specified period, typically 3 years): since the first major media coverage in 2019, the programme has attracted international applicants from 40+ countries. The practical limitations: the 1-euro houses are in borghi with limited infrastructure (no reliable high-speed internet in many cases, no school, hospital 30-60 km away, no local employment); the restoration cost of a derelict tufa or stone Apennine house is typically EUR 50,000-150,000 (far more than the EUR 1 purchase price); and the 3-year restoration deadline is enforced — incomplete restorations can result in the property reverting to the municipality.
Italy abandoned places beyond Civita and Craco: Pentedattilo (Calabria — the abandoned clifftop village in the Aspromonte mountains, evacuated in 1971 after earthquake risk assessment; the ruins of the medieval village cling to the five-rock formation (Pentedattilo = five fingers in Greek) above the Amendolea river canyon; free access; approximately 3 km from the modern Pentedattilo village on the plain); Apice Vecchio (Campania — the Irpinia town evacuated after the 1980 earthquake and never resettled; essentially frozen in time with the 1980 furnishings visible through the open windows; no formal guided access, the ruins are partially accessible on foot); and the Sicilian sulphur mines (the abandoned 19th-20th century sulphur extraction complexes of the Enna and Caltanissetta provinces — the specific industrial ruins of the Sicilian sulphur industry that employed 30,000 miners before synthetic sulphur production ended the industry in the 1930s; the most accessible is the Miniera di Floristella, now a museum park).
Civita di Bagnoregio EUR 5 bridge day trip Rome + Craco Basilicata guided tour EUR 8-10 + Pentedattilo Calabria free cliffside ruins.
Plan my trip →Italian towns abandoned after earthquakes: Apice Vecchio (Campania — evacuated after the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, magnitude 6.9, which killed approximately 2,735 people and left 280,000 homeless; the Apice old town was deemed structurally unsafe and the residents relocated to a new Apice built on the adjacent hilltop; the abandoned town, frozen at November 23, 1980, is partially accessible on foot from the modern town); Gibellina Vecchia (Sicily — the entire town was destroyed in the 1968 Belice earthquake; the ruins were then partially encased in a vast concrete flowing form by the artist Alberto Burri in 1984-2015 — the Grande Cretto, or Grande Cemento — in one of the most extraordinary Land Art projects in the world: 80,000 square metres of white concrete following the street plan of the original destroyed city); and Romagnano al Monte (Campania — abandoned after 1980 also, smaller and less visited than Apice).
Albergo Diffuso (the Italian 'scattered hotel' model — the specific Italian response to the abandoned borgo problem): the albergo diffuso concept places the hotel reception in one historic building and the rooms in multiple separate historic buildings throughout the abandoned or semi-abandoned borgo — the guest stays in a restored historic house and receives hotel services from the central reception. The model was invented in Comeglians (Carnia, Friuli Venezia Giulia) in the 1980s by Professor Giancarlo Dall'Ara as a way to reanimate marginal mountain borghi without constructing new buildings. There are now approximately 100 certified albergo diffuso in Italy (see albergodiffuso.it); the most celebrated: the Sextantio in Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo — the restored 15th-century Medici banking village in the Gran Sasso mountains; the most refined albergo diffuso in Italy at EUR 200-400/night) and the Sextantio Matera Sassi hotel (in the converted Matera cave dwellings).
The Grande Cretto di Burri (the Gibellina Vecchia land art installation, Valle del Belice, western Sicily — near Castelvetrano and Selinunte; accessible by car; free; GPS approximately 37.6500°N 12.9833°E): the Italian artist Alberto Burri (1915-1995, the most internationally significant post-war Italian artist) was invited in 1981 to create a memorial for the destroyed town of Gibellina, which had been completely levelled by the 1968 Belice earthquake (over 300 dead; the entire town destroyed). Burri's response: to encase the ruins of the destroyed town in white concrete, following exactly the original street plan of the city — the resulting work (80,000 square metres, completed 1984-2015; the largest Land Art work in the world by surface area) shows the streets of the destroyed town as channels between the white concrete blocks, which are the cased ruins of the original houses. Walking through the Grande Cretto channels (each channel represents an original Gibellina street; each white block is an original building ruins) is the most specifically Italian memorial experience.