March 28, 2024

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Italian town of Biccari in Puglia sells all set-to-occupy homes at discount selling prices

If you have been tempted to decide up one particular of the dilapidated residences made available for sale in Italy for tiny far more than $1 but experienced second feelings about the hassle of renovating it, 1 city has an offer you that may just tempt you.



a view of a stone building: Like many Italian towns, Biccari has suffered from depopulation over the years.


© Courtesy Comune Biccari
Like lots of Italian towns, Biccari has suffered from depopulation about the decades.

Biccari, deep in the southeastern region of Puglia, is also offering off dilapidated households priced at €1, but as opposed to other destinations, it also has deal promotions on completely ready-to-occupy areas.

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Costs of empty turnkey dwellings get started as small as €7,500 ($9,000). Most are in the assortment of €10,000-€13,000.

The sale is portion of Mayor Gianfilippo Mignogna’s mission to conserve his ailing hometown from the grave right after a long time of persons leaving to pursue positions in Italy’s cities or abroad, predominantly to the United States. The gradual exodus has taken a toll on a populace that peaked at 5,000 in the 1950s.

“We’re barely 2,000 citizens,” he tells CNN. “Depopulation is an open wound, a continual phenomenon. Locals hold leaving and while most applied to occur back again in the course of the summer months to stop by, now they no more time do so. Numerous habitable residences are empty and are falling into oblivion.”

He suggests he now wants to recover the buildings they still left guiding.

Lovable properties

“One particular working day I was wandering by way of the previous centre, and it struck me how so several lovable small households in a great shape experienced been shut for years, tucked absent in silent alleys, with symptoms ‘for lease or sale’ that no person sees.

“I assumed the greatest way was to require those people no-longer fascinated entrepreneurs to market them ideal off.”

There are roughly a dozen €1 and 20 “upper-scale” houses out there but possibly more than 100 vacant properties in Biccari are in will need of new occupants.

Photos and maps of the qualities will shortly be set on the web on the town corridor internet site but interested people today are invited to contact Mignogna ([email protected]).

The online system will be divided into two sections: €1 homes and low-priced residences.



a parking lot full of cars: Biccari is located in deepest Puglia, in southeastern Italy.


© Courtesy Comune Biccari
Biccari is situated in deepest Puglia, in southeastern Italy.

Those people who settle for a dilapidated €1 dwelling must stump up a assure sum of €3,000 to be returned as soon as the will work are concluded, potentially within just three many years. But as opposed to other Italian towns that have introduced comparable schemes, the completion deadline will be extended if function is nicely underway and you will find a fantastic motive to for the hold off.

The ‘roof’ of Puglia

Biccari offers an impressive site. Straddling the border between three regions — Puglia, Molise and Campania — it is surrounded by the pristine Daunia Mountains, thick forests, herd-grazing fields, olive groves and a lake.



Ralph DePalma et al. in uniform: American racing driver Ralph De Palma was born in Biccari.


© Common Photographic Company/Getty Images
American racing driver Ralph De Palma was born in Biccari.

Biccari is established at the foot of the region’s greatest peak, Monte Cornacchia (aka the Carrion Crow’s Mount). From the prime, there is certainly a look at stretching to the Adriatic Coastline, the Gargano Promontory and the Tremiti Islands. The place is acknowledged as “the roof of Puglia.”

Biccari’s name is considered to stem from the Italian term “bicchiere,” meaning glass, as the village has the form of an upside-down cup.

The countryside is dotted with ruins of prehistoric settlements and previous farms.

Launched by the historical Romans on the ashes of a primitive village, Biccari went on centuries later on to prosper in the Center Ages. Not much is still left of its outdated fortified partitions but one one tower that nevertheless stands at the village entrance and hosts artwork shows and museum exhibitions.

A land of shepherds, monks and after even outlaws, Biccari is surrounded by a network of aged trails and trekking paths winding across hills outfitted picnic parts. It truly is a wild patch of Puglia roamed by wolves, foxes and wild boars.

“We are a corner of paradise, best for slow- ourism,” claims Mignogna. “The clean mountain air and normal surroundings present a detox, unplugged continue to be considerably from town chaos, pollution and sounds.”

Securing the future

Biccari’s cobblestone alleys are lined with previous and brightly colored newer properties. Crumbling stone dwellings with cracked picket doorways, damaged window panes and peeling wall paint are juxtaposed with photo-ideal households with ornate stone arches, minor courtyards and painted home windows with flower pots.



a stone building that has a bench in front of a door: Biccari's mayor says many of the homes it has for sale are ready to occupy.


© Courtesy Comune Biccari
Biccari’s mayor claims numerous of the houses it has for sale are completely ready to occupy.

The €1 and more costly properties on sale are all located in the ancient district surrounding the majestic tower. The turnkey properties are more compact, about 50-70 sq. meters distribute around two floors, some with sights of the environmentally friendly rolling hills dotted with wind turbines. Shut for yrs, most are second homes of emigrant family members, perfectly saved but no for a longer period utilised by their descendants.



a harbor filled with lots of tall buildings


© Biccari Archivo Associazione BAI


New entrepreneurs might want to make minimum alterations based upon own preferences but the mayor says the affordable residences are by now habitable, and probably a improved deal than individuals on sale for €1, as their rate could be lessen than the expense of renovating a a lot more dilapidated constructing.



a harbor filled with lots of green grass: Biccari is surrounded by countryside with hiking trails and picnicking spots.


© Courtesy Comune Biccari
Biccari is surrounded by countryside with climbing trails and picnicking places.

Mignogna states that reaching out to the heirs of the dilapidated households, who are frequently distribute across the world, can be troublesome but reviving the aged district is also a make any difference of safety.

“I will expropriate the attributes of old owners who really don’t solution to our connect with to restyle their unstable spouse and children property or alternatively hand it over to us. Roof tiles often fall off and that’s a risk for passersby. The town’s city architecture ought to be secured.”

Bloody earlier

Though the village may possibly be in need to have of a extensive makeover, the scenery is idyllic. The surrounding woods give “nature-journey” stays and ordeals which includes classes on environmental consciousness, archery and survival expertise periods.

There are treehouses where vacationers can slumber suspended previously mentioned the floor and acrobatic “tree walks” on ropes.

Biccari has a darkish earlier, some of which is portrayed in peculiar photographs that beautify the village’s partitions. Portals of previous properties bear indicators of battles and attacks by outlaws and secessionists combating from the “tyrannical” Italian state back again in the 1800s. Murders and hangings are mentioned to have taken place in the public piazza.

Fiery locals are very pleased of their bandit heritage. Villagers applied to shelter preferred outlaws and continue to celebrate them as heroes. A “bloody” tourist guided trail qualified prospects guests to critical places of rebellion with sculptures of historically sizeable folks who dropped their lives.

A further Biccari hero is native Ralph de Palma, a well-known Italian-American race-auto driver who gained the 1915 Indianapolis 500 soon after migrating to the States. A museum in town is committed to him.

Cheese and sausages

The area is identified for its waistline-stretching food items. At the yearly pizze e furne aperte good, tourists are dealt with to a specific form of flat white pizza produced in open ovens using an ancient procedure. Chili powder is sprinkled on prime.

It can be a cheese heaven. “U’ Mascjuottele” is a top quality challenging cheese built with regional goat’s milk. It can be eaten contemporary or dry and grated about dishes. Goats in Biccari are identified as “the cows of the weak” and have always been the most important resource of proteins.

The extra virgin olive is just one of Puglia’s most savory and the first trees are thought to have been introduced by historical Greek colonizers.

Sausages designed with wild newborn black piglet, which has a tastier meat, are a different top delicacy. Households cling salami and sausages from ceiling hooks. And there are lots of pasta plates with quality local truffles and wild mountain flowers and herbs.

And in circumstance you happen to be stressing it may well be also peaceful, folklore dance festivals are routinely held in the old district with regular singing deep into the evening.

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