Craco - Paese Fantasma

In the sixties, the old town has experienced an evacuation that made it a veritable ghost town. However, the particular village of Craco has become a tourist destination and a movie set for several films. The first traces of the origins are some graves dating from the eighth century BC. Like other neighboring centers, it is likely to have offered shelter to the Greek colonies of Metaponto. In the tenth century Byzantine-Italian monks began to develop agriculture in the area, favoring the urban aggregation. The first record of the name of the city, Graculum, was in 1060. The structure of the ancient village dates back to 1154, with homes are perched around the square tower that dominates the center. Because of a landslide of vast proportions, in 1963 Craco began to be evacuated and the inhabitants moved to the valley in "Craco Peschiera". After the earthquake of 1980 Old Craco was completely abandoned, becoming a ghost town. In 2010, the village entered the list of "World Monuments Fund" among the monuments to be preserved. As of 2011, a path guided along a route secured, can walk the main street of the country, reaching what remains of the old square and go into the core of the ghost town.