Bussana Vecchia
Bussana Vecchia, or Old Bussana, in the Italian region of Liguria is perhaps one of the strangest places you could ever happen upon, with one of the saddest and yet most surprising of stories.
Like so many hilltop towns and villages along the Mediterranean coast, Bussana Vecchia came about in response to the Saracen invasions of the late ninth century. The town continued to grow and most of the buildings we can see there today date back to the fifteenth century.
Liguria, however, is a region of moderate seismicity, and though the people of Bussana Vecchia were able to keep the Saracens at bay, they found themselves defenceless at 6.21 on February 23, 1887, when an especially big earthquake hit. Ironically, February 23rd was Ash Wednesday, and the large part of the community happened to be in church, in the Chiesa di Sant’Egidio. As it happens, this was also the first earthquake recorded by a true seismograph. The quake lasted over 20 seconds, killing more than 2,000 people, many of whom were in church. Most of Bussana Vecchia’s buildings were severely damaged and all of its buildings declared dangerous, and so the survivors abandoned Bussana Vecchia, thinking the place cursed and disowned by God like Sodom and Gomorrah, and rebuilt their town at the foot of the hill, calling it Bussana Nuova, or New Bussana.
And yet Bussana Vecchia’s story, which had accounted for a millennium already, wasn’t over just yet. Some 50 years or so later, immigrants from Southern Italy started settling – illegally – in this ghost town. The authorities evicted them, destroying all first floor stairways and rooftops in order to dissuade anyone else from doing likewise in the future. But this didn’t dissuade people. In the Swinging Sixties a group of artists calling themselves the Community of International Artists moved in. Despite the state of the town, and despite there being no electricity, running water, or sanitation, the community grew, with hippy artists from all over Europe coming here to join them, to live simply and work artistically. The authorities returned but found themselves unable to remove this new community, and so the International Artists’ Village was truly born. The residents have tried hard to renovate the town, though the authorities continue to insist that all buildings are the property of the Italian government, and they sell their produce to tourists who happen upon this unusual, unique even, place. Though these people have kept Bussana Vecchia alive, the new Bussanesi still face opposition from the authorities and live their lives from one day to the next not knowing whether they are going to lose their homes.
A visit to Bussana Vecchia is a must. You will find a town such as you have never seen before, half in ruins with buildings standing precariously, the roofless church never having been repaired and its bells standing silent, and yet filled with interesting folk with their little workshops and abodes squeezed into every nook and cranny. You can even stay the night and dine there at the Bed and Breakfast Li or visit the more bohemian community at the back of the village who will invite you into their premises – which is a really just a hotchpotch of antiques and bric-à-brac – and feed you the fare of their barbecue and the produce of their kegs, and show you around their quarters where they all live together in bunkbeds. There is even a jazz bar you can visit in the evening, where the music, and beer, is surprisingly good!
Bussana Vecchia is no longer a ghost town. Let’s keep it that way, and prevent the present Bussanesi from being displaced by ghosts. As for me, my own season in Bussana Vecchia awaits, and you will hear more from me afterwards…
Bussana Vecchia Google Street View
Bussana Vecchia Google Street View 2
Artists Fight for Bussana Vecchia
