rome blog

From the hustle and bustle and the chaos to the silence and most absolute desolation: Once upon a time, cities that are now completely deserted use to be immersed in the everyday din of noisy life. A continuous flow of people and cars and the roar of civilization were witnesses of their essence till the day everything stopped. They were completely abandoned, left empty and silent.

The ghost towns are spread throughout the world: there are abandoned cities in the United States, in Ukraine, in France, in Japan, in Spain and Italy. Why these towns were left as this depends on each case, but often due to impossible architecture, a nuclear accident, a natural disaster, a war or a crisis time have left these cities totally empty.

This is the case of Zhi Shan, located in northern Taiwan. What was to be a luxury futurist vacation complex was reduced to a ghost town of strange shapes. The complex, composed of small round modular units of glass and concrete, was left unfinished due to the construction company falling into bankruptcy because of the high accident rate of the workers during the first weeks of work. This has established it as a kind of mausoleum in memory of the deceased workers. Some people say that the city is inhabited by the evil spirits of these ones.

Another amazing story is that of the medieval town of Craco, known as the “Città Fantasma” of Italy. Located in the south of the Italian peninsula, Craco was evacuated in the 70’s by a possible collapse due to earthquakes. It is situated on a 400 metre high hill of sand and clay and it is very vulnerable to earthquakes. Thanks to its medieval appearance it has been the setting for numerous films such as “The Passion of Christ” by Mel Gibson. Its streets full of destroyed houses, castles and even a church, give it a ghostly and romantic appearance. It is both beautiful and desolate.

Perhaps the most terrible story is that of the ghost town of Pripyat, located in the Chernobyl region. Pripyat suffered the most serious nuclear accident in human history on April 26th, 1986. The explosion of reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caused 500 times more radiation than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. After the accident, the city was so heavily contaminated that it had to be evacuated immediately. In fact, it is not expected to be re-inhabited for several centuries. As if it were a joke, on the streets there are still signs which read “Forests are the lungs of the planet,” “Keep away the trees of fire”, “Health for the workers of Chernobyl,” as if the city was still alive and nothing had happened. Pripyat, which in the 70s had 47.000 inhabitants, was a young, avant-garde city city, and today it is totally empty and forgotten.

But these are not the only ghost towns of the world. There are so many that we could spend hours writing about them. For example Oradour, located in the south of France, which was massacred by German soldiers in World War II has never again been inhabited; Kolmasnkop in Namibia, where people use to go in search of gold became abandoned and semi buried by the sand; Or Detroit in the United States, which after the economic crisis in the 50’s, passed from being an industrial city to a city with neighbourhoods similar to a ghost movie, totally uninhabited. Who knows what other hidden treasures will appear in the future? Maybe your town is next!

Rent apartments in Rome and take a trip to Craco in southern Italy to see this ghost town, you’ll be amazed!