The time has come for the owner Municipality to auction off the ghost village in the heart of the island. How much does it cost to buy this historic place
It happens in the immense and fertile territory of Butera, in the plain between Gela and Niscemi, an area of fiefdoms and sulfur mines, in the province of Caltanissetta. Here, in this small village of just over four thousand inhabitants which stands on a hill inhabited since ancient times, the municipal administration, led by the mayor Giovanni Zuccalà, has put up for auction, with a starting price of 716,000 euros, an entire rural village which is located in the Disueri districtnot far from the dam of the same name, along the sulfur mine road.
It’s about Borgo Guttadauro built in 1940 and equipped with a central square around which there is a church with an adjoining bell tower and what were other social structures, such as the school, the Royal Carabinieri barracks, the post office, the medical assistance department , the granary, warehouses, shop, the Casa del Fascioworkshops for artisans and more.
The deadline for submitting offers in a sealed envelope expires on April 26th at 1.00 pm, while the opening of the envelopes will take place on April 29th at 10.00 am, as stated in the tender notice published on the noticeboard of the Municipality of Butera on the 16th April, which recalls the resolution of the City Council of 14 March, with which the “Property disposal and development plan” was approved.
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In short, for the Municipality of Butera, which became the effective owner of Borgo Guttadauro in 1971, the time has come to auction the village offended by decades of abandonment.
An initiative that could attract investors to reinvent a future yet to be written for that village which in its time had revitalized an area dedicated to the economy and of which the emblem has always been the violet artichoke of Niscemi. The village was named after Captain Emanuele Guttadauro, born in Terranova di Sicilia in 1899 (now Gela).
Having graduated in Economics from Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Guttadauro left his wife, their four daughters and his job as a bank manager in Marsala to go and fight as a volunteer in the Spanish war.
Already in the Piave War, the brave Guttadauro had volunteered at the age of 17 and fought as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment. He had been placed on temporary leave in 1920, with the rank of lieutenant. He then returned to fight in the Spanish war with the fascist armies, where he fell on 21 July 1938 and was awarded the Gold medal to military valor.
The birth of Borgo Guttadauro finds its origins in the so-called Serpieri Law, royal decree n. 3267 of the 30th of 1923 which provided for the reorganization and reform of the legislation regarding forests and mountainous lands, and therefore the land transformation and environmental remediation, hygienic interventions, electrification, the colonization of the large estates to encourage agricultural development of the socio-rural area.
Designed by architect Gaetano Averna, the tender to build Borgo Guttadauro took place on 5 November 1940 in Palermo, in via Catania, at the ECLS headquarters, the Sicilian Latifund Colonization Body. The Roman company Ferrobeton won it and the agreement was signed on 29 January 1941.
The basic idea was that this village would give impetus to agriculture, favoring the area where historically wheat, broad beans, peas, but also cotton and tree production were grown. The Disueri artificial lake was also built to optimize the distribution of consortium water to farmers and breeders, aiming to make sheep farming flourish again.
Then, with Italy’s entry into the war, Italian airmen settled there and organized themselves to counter the landing of the Allies, being able to count on the nearby Ponte Olivo military airport. After the landing on 10 July 1943, the Allies then settled in Borgo Guttadauro which was also used as a military hospital.
Once the war was over, other works became necessary between the end of the 40s and the 50s. Then we get to the 60s and the village was also used as a summer camp for children and a musical band made up of children and adolescents was also formed.
The progressive abandonment of rural work and the depopulation of the countryside marked the fate of Borgo Guttadauro which was handed over to the Municipality of Butera on 14 January 1971, pursuant to law 890 of 8 June 1942, which, among other things, regulates how the structures built in the colonization area must be transferred free of charge to the municipalities with the constraint of perpetual destination for public use.
Until the 1970s the primary school was also active, in the 1980s it was entrusted to a social cooperative to use it as a multi-purpose center but the lack of funding necessary for its recovery marked its definitive abandonment.
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