The ghost town of Old Bussana
posted on 2nd of august, 2008
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Bussana Vecchia (Old Bussana) is a small ghost town in Liguria (Italy), not so far from the Italian-French border. It was built (IX sec.) on the top of a hill to be easily defended by Saracens. Like many other villages in the area it experienced periods of ups and downs, without ever becoming famous for a particular reason.
The reason why today is known is linked to the tremendous earthquake occured on February 23, 1887: at 6:21 AM a twenty second earth tremor caused destruction and deaths (at least 2000 people).
As a consequence of this tragedy, local authorities decided to rebuild the village, called Bussana Nuova (New Bussana), in a new site, a couple of kilometers downstream.
After the WW2, immigrants and displaced persons coming from Southern Italy started illegally settling the Old town. Despite many attempts by the Italian authorities – in the 50’s the authorities ordered the desctruction of all first floor stairways and rooftops – immigration and illegal accomodation within the damaged houses continued. In the 60’s Old Bussana became the destination for many hippie artists coming from all over Europe. And the 1968 saw barricades, protests and clashes with the police also among the alleys of Old Bussana…
Today, despite in 1997 all buidings were declared property of the Italian Government, Old Bussana is a small ghost town where artists are still living, selling their handiwork to the tourists, organizing artistic events and using creativity in all daily activities (typically italian style, considering, for example, the illegal tie to the electricity grid, but this is the not-romatic part of the story…)
The interesting aspect of Old Bussana is the ghost town aura you can feel inside the narrow streets, but also the organic modernity of the built-up area. The flat roofs, the immoderate and “natural” growth of the built-up area, together with the ruins still visible around the town are charming.
Here you are some photos of Old Bussana:
See you soon, Rob.
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Tags: bussana ghost ruins town travel
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Comments (6)
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Yes, it is interesting... And then it is close to our beautiful sea... ;-) Bye, Rob.
- posted by
Roberto1977
on August 05, 2008 |
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Wow! I nevere heard anything about this place before, but it seems very intresting!! Thank you for showing me, maybe I shall visit it soon! =)
- posted by
Lauraowl
on August 05, 2008 |
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Thanks a lot for your comments!
- posted by
Roberto1977
on August 04, 2008 |
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I had been living few kilometers from there for 30 years and never visted this town. Time to rectify this at the end of the year.
- posted by
Fcarucci
on August 04, 2008 |
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I must go and visit it... thanks for sharing :)
- posted by
Sil63
on August 04, 2008 |
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Thank you for your story behind the photos of this town,now I know more history and change of this architecture.
- posted by
Sunflowerhike
on August 02, 2008 |
Comments (6) |
This article has been read 767 times.
Photo credits: Tanja Rosso, Tanja Rosso, Tanja Rosso, Roberto1977, Roberto1977. |
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