Craco

Craco is located in the region of Basilicata, Matera very close to the southern tip of the boot that is Italy.

Like many villages in this area of Italy Craco is built up into a hillside, perching on top of a four hundred foot cliff and was an agricultural village. The village dates back to at least 1060AD and by 1891 Craco had a population in excess of two thousand....so what happened?

Between 1892 and 1922 upto one thousand three hundred of Carco's inhabitants emigrated to North America, this was due to war, landslides and earthquakes along with bad agricultural conditions making it hard for the village to make a living.

Those that did remain were transferred by the Italian government in 1963 to Craco Peschiera, a village in the valley not far from Craco itself. The reason this was done was because the village started to fall into disrepair because of being ravaged by more earthquakes and landslides.

When the transfer happened the village was left as an empty shell without people and belongings as it was felt there was no need to knock the village down.

The Italian government are probably glad they did move the inhabitants when they did as a plague of earthquakes and landslides between 1959 and 1974 has caused the ghost village of Craco to become a desolate place that is in crumbling decay.