Italian town of Biccari in Puglia sells completely ready-to-occupy houses at cut price costs

If you’ve got been tempted to choose up 1 of the dilapidated residences supplied for sale in Italy for minimal far more than $1 but experienced second views about the stress of renovating it, 1 city has an provide that may well 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 many Italian cities, Biccari has experienced from depopulation around the decades.

Biccari, deep in the southeastern region of Puglia, is also marketing off dilapidated homes priced at €1, but contrary to other locations, it also has discount bargains on completely ready-to-occupy places.

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Selling prices of empty turnkey dwellings begin as small as €7,500 ($9,000). Most are in the vary of €10,000-€13,000.

The sale is part of Mayor Gianfilippo Mignogna’s mission to preserve his ailing hometown from the grave following years of people leaving to pursue careers in Italy’s towns or abroad, generally to the United States. The slow exodus has taken a toll on a populace that peaked at 5,000 in the 1950s.

“We are barely 2,000 inhabitants,” he tells CNN. “Depopulation is an open up wound, a steady phenomenon. Locals maintain leaving and while most utilized to appear again in the course of the summertime to go to, now they no lengthier do so. Lots of habitable residences are empty and are slipping into oblivion.”

He states he now desires to recuperate the properties they remaining driving.

Lovable properties

“One particular working day I was wandering by means of the aged centre, and it struck me how so a lot of lovable minor houses in a great shape experienced been shut for several years, tucked absent in silent alleys, with signals ‘for lease or sale’ that nobody sees.

“I believed the best way was to require those no-lengthier fascinated house owners to provide them suitable off.”

There are around a dozen €1 and 20 “upper-scale” households obtainable but potentially much more than 100 empty buildings in Biccari are in will need of new occupants.

Photographs and maps of the houses will before long be set on the web on the town corridor web site but fascinated people are invited to contact Mignogna ([email protected]).

The on the net platform will be divided into two sections: €1 residences and cheap houses.



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


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

Those who settle for a dilapidated €1 dwelling ought to stump up a guarantee sum of €3,000 to be returned when the functions are completed, probably in just a few several years. But as opposed to other Italian towns that have released equivalent strategies, the completion deadline will be prolonged if get the job done is nicely underway and you can find a great motive to for the hold off.

The ‘roof’ of Puglia

Biccari features an remarkable location. Straddling the border concerning 3 locations — Puglia, Molise and Campania — it really 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.


© Basic Photographic Agency/Getty Illustrations or photos
American racing driver Ralph De Palma was born in Biccari.

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

Biccari’s title is believed to stem from the Italian phrase “bicchiere,” which means 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 historic Romans on the ashes of a primitive village, Biccari went on centuries later on to flourish in the Center Ages. Not a great deal is left of its old fortified partitions but a single one tower that continue to stands at the village entrance and hosts artwork displays and museum exhibitions.

A land of shepherds, monks and after even outlaws, Biccari is surrounded by a community of outdated trails and trekking paths winding throughout hills geared up picnic locations. It truly is a wild patch of Puglia roamed by wolves, foxes and wild boars.

“We’re a corner of paradise, suitable for slow- ourism,” claims Mignogna. “The refreshing mountain air and purely natural environment supply a detox, unplugged remain much from town chaos, pollution and noise.”

Securing the upcoming

Biccari’s cobblestone alleys are lined with aged and brightly colored newer homes. Crumbling stone dwellings with cracked picket doorways, broken window panes and peeling wall paint are juxtaposed with picture-ideal households with ornate stone arches, minor courtyards and painted 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 a lot of of the households it has for sale are prepared to occupy.

The €1 and far more high-priced homes on sale are all found in the historical district encompassing the majestic tower. The turnkey houses are smaller, approximately 50-70 sq. meters distribute in excess of two floors, some with sights of the inexperienced rolling hills dotted with wind turbines. Shut for years, most are 2nd residences of emigrant family members, well kept but no more time employed by their descendants.



a harbor filled with lots of tall buildings


© Biccari Archivo Associazione BAI


New proprietors could want to make minimal variations dependent upon private tastes but the mayor says the cheap residences are now habitable, and perhaps a far better offer than those on sale for €1, as their value could be reduce than the price of renovating a far more dilapidated making.



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 hiking trails and picnicking spots.

Mignogna claims that achieving out to the heirs of the dilapidated houses, who are frequently spread throughout the world, can be troublesome but reviving the old district is also a make any difference of safety.

“I will expropriate the attributes of outdated house owners who will not remedy to our phone to restyle their unstable spouse and children household or alternatively hand it over to us. Roof tiles typically fall off and which is a risk for passersby. The town’s urban architecture need to be secured.”

Bloody previous

Although the village may be in have to have of a thorough makeover, the landscapes is idyllic. The encompassing woods offer “nature-journey” stays and activities including lessons on environmental awareness, archery and survival skills periods.

There are treehouses wherever visitors can slumber suspended over the floor and acrobatic “tree walks” on ropes.

Biccari has a dark past, some of which is portrayed in odd photos that decorate the village’s walls. Portals of outdated properties bear signals of battles and assaults by outlaws and secessionists combating against the “tyrannical” Italian point out back again in the 1800s. Murders and hangings are stated to have taken put in the community piazza.

Fiery locals are happy of their bandit heritage. Villagers employed to shelter preferred outlaws and continue to rejoice them as heroes. A “bloody” tourist guided trail leads website visitors to crucial areas of uprising with sculptures of traditionally sizeable folks who dropped their life.

An additional Biccari hero is indigenous Ralph de Palma, a preferred Italian-American race-auto driver who won the 1915 Indianapolis 500 following migrating to the States. A museum in town is committed to him.

Cheese and sausages

The location is recognized for its waistline-stretching food. At the annual pizze e furne aperte fair, holidaymakers are treated to a exclusive kind of flat white pizza made in open up ovens applying an historical technique. Chili powder is sprinkled on major.

It’s a cheese heaven. “U’ Mascjuottele” is a top quality tough cheese created with community goat’s milk. It can be eaten new or dry and grated about dishes. Goats in Biccari are recognized as “the cows of the very poor” and have constantly been the key source of proteins.

The further virgin olive is a person of Puglia’s most savory and the very first trees are believed to have been introduced by historical Greek colonizers.

Sausages created with wild child black piglet, which has a tastier meat, are one more best delicacy. Families hang salami and sausages from ceiling hooks. And there are numerous pasta plates with premium nearby truffles and wild mountain flowers and herbs.

And in situation you are stressing it could be way too peaceful, folklore dance festivals are frequently held in the outdated district with common singing deep into the night time.

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