In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
This page [url=http://www.adrphoto.com/index.php/Paesi-abbandonati/Il-paese-abbandonato-di-Serra.html]Alessandro de Ruvo - adrphoto.com - Fotografia - Teramo - Il paese abbandonato di Serra[/url] made me feel like weeping .
The quality of the stonework is sublime!!How can these wonderful buildings be left to decay?? They look like they could last another 1000 years at least. Surely there's someone who could take them on and restore them??They are too wonderful to lose.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
There are some of the houses which are in pretty good condition for a ruin and the author says that there are some shutters, etc. as evidence that someone is not giving up at all. Let's hope that this is true. On the other hand, I think that it will be too late for the church as the roof has collapsed and the walls are deteriorating quickly.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Did you notice the quality of the pointing on the church? It looked like it was lime mortar rather than mud which is usual and the exterior condition was wonderful.If only or stone work had been so well built!!
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
have let the father and son know where the links are on this site to theirs... they are pleased with the interest shown... i think their efforts and the obvious pride they have in their province shows through clearly in both sites...obviously bruno has a less commercial site but it shows that its just not concerned green incomers that want to preserve the best parts of Abruzzo... that there are locals that have been worrying and doing something long before non abruzzo people ever arrived... the club alpino site is a mine of information too... especially for walking excursions and shows at least to me how widespread the appreciation is of their national parks... yes its good to point out the problems we all see... but these people discuss the very same problems that we see and are as or even more concerned ...
regarding ruined villages and tumbledown places... we got involved with a mayor of one comune when he was trying to find someone to take over a small borg... to restore... we found someone that wished to invest and this person made several visits... over a couple of years.. what happened... well just about nothing... all the properties had to be checked and compulsory purchased ... off of long lost or even dead people all over the world... which takes a fair bit of work on the comunes part... a few owners still alive and kicking in Italy even though the place was a ruin kicked up a bit of a fuss...especially when a geometra from that area got to hear what was going on and bought some of the properties anyway ... wanted to be in a strong position to rack the price up... even get in on the project... needless to say his greed sort of put an end to the deal... at the start the actual purchase price was going to be zero with proof that the client had funding available to complete the project... plus there were grants involved..... so the place lies still crumbling...we all lost a lot of time over essentially a non commercial deal which would have been good for that comune... and a geometra is now trying to sell off the bits he bought to other foreign buyers..
its basically why its so hard to do anything much with these places...not an italian specific problem... its just that here there is always someone in the comune that lets the news out to a relative or contact ...and gets them to start buying up bits and pieces...they never seem to believe that investors will walk off to another comune ,province or region and try again if they feel like they are being cheated at the outset... OK they are not altruistic in the sense they do not want to make money too... however the money for the comune is in the increased visitors/inhabitants, work for the people who live there ... that sort of thing...
its not all gloom...there are successful stories and projects underway...where the mayors are stronger with more determination to get things done... and see the benefits gained in other comunes where projects have gone ahead to completion... needless to say where it suceeded best here in Abruzzo at san stefano the mayor was a woman....
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
I'm glad that you've been able to pass on our compliements to both Bruno and Alessandro about their wonderful sites.My family think I'm mad as I 'm always looking at fungi on walks and try to photograph them too,although not as sucessfully as Bruno.When my Italian is good enough I'll be paying a vist to the shop (I need paint too) as I can talk about funghi all day!!!
What you say about these abandoned villages is true and so frustrating. After seeing the site ' I passed it on' to a few people I thought could be interested but warned them that trying to buy these places is fraught with problems as John has pointed out.
I have probabaly mentioned this before but we have been facing a similar difficulty although on a smaller scale with the other attached end of 'our' church owned by 6 brothers and rapidly deterioting.We'd have loved to restore the property to make the church of Santa Lucia into a single dwellling but realistically we have no money to spend on a proper restoration so we'd have simply replaced rotten beams etc and re roofed leaving a nice looking building to stand for another 500 years rather than become a pile of rubble. Possibly we'd use it as a studio or workshop.We managed to raise a sum of money but then a geometra got involved and talk of more money etc,etc now sadly we must simply watch the house fall down as the family want too much for us to afford.
Realistcally because of the position of the building in relation to us its of practically no interest to any other buyer so we cannnot even be consoled by the thought that they may find another person to pay the inflated price and restore it.
What can we do? Absolutely nothing.
Building materials ready to steal!!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 10:55In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[QUOTE=myabruzzohome;94649]This page [url=http://www.adrphoto.com/index.php/Paesi-abbandonati/Il-paese-abbandonato-di-Serra.html]Alessandro de Ruvo - adrphoto.com - Fotografia - Teramo - Il paese abbandonato di Serra[/url] made me feel like weeping .
A few masonary thieves in Umbria would weep too...here you see such buildings with their corner stones missing...and a lot else besides. All the restoration is happening in Umbria perhaps and there is certainly a shortage of original materlials such a dressed stone.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
interestingly it looks as if HAI agency are selling one of these ancient abandoned borgo's themselves?
[url=http://www.housearounditaly.com:80/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=178]Houses and Properties for sale in Abruzzo, Italy - Properties with lake side views[/url]
anyone going on their property restoration day .At 50 euros it looks like a real bargain
Very slick websites - especially the one from the son, Alessandro .