In the heart of Sicily there is a ghost village that the Municipality has decided to auction off in an attempt to bring it back to life
Have you ever heard of an entire village put up for sale? Put like this, it may seem like the plot of a fantasy film, but in reality, strange as it may seem, it is a very true story.
This is what happened in the Butera area in the plain between Gela and Niscemian area known for its sulfur mines province of Caltanisetta. It is a small village of just over 4,000 souls that stands on a hill inhabited since ancient times.
A paradisiacal scenario that certainly deserves to be valorised and for this very reason the mayor Giovanni Zuccalà auctioned the rural village which is found in the Disueri district at a base price of 716,000 euros.
But what is this called? Sicilian municipality in which time seems to have crystallized in the last century? Let’s find out together so as to understand all the details and purchasing methods.
Which village is up for auction in Sicily
It’s about Borgo Guttadauro built in 1940. Around the central square there is a church with an adjoining bell tower and other social structures such as the school, the barracks, the post office and the artisans’ workshops which over time were then abandoned.
The name comes from Emanuele Guttadauro Gela general of the fascist army, volunteer in the army in the Spanish war and gold medal for military valor in memory. In fact, this village was dedicated to him and was put up for sale a few months ago.
The details of the curious initiative
A few months ago the deadline for submitting offers expired, but at the moment nothing is yet known about who will be the new owner of the village who will have the arduous task of bringing the country back to its former glories. And who knows if in this wake new investors may arrive eager to carry out new projects in the village of province of Caltanissetta.
The main activity was the agriculture of products such as wheat, broad beans and peas, but also cotton and arboreal plants. It was precisely the depopulation of the countryside in the years following the Second World War that led to the slow decline Borgo Guttadauro (merged in 1971 with the Municipality of Butera) which now hopes to experience a second youth by also resuming the activities of the past but with the progressive eye of the current era.
