The myth of San Severino of Centola and Roscigno

Beaches, crystal clear waters, underwater caves. It is the postcard image of the Cilento coast. But there is also another Cilento, more intimate, solitary, less known. And that’s the one of the abandoned villages. Small towns that over the decades, for various economic and social reasons, landslides and earthquakes, have gradually become depopulated, to the point of turning into “ghost villages”, with incredible charm. Timeless places, which today are in some cases tourist destinations. As Old Roscigno e San Severino di Centolaof particular beauty.

San Severino di Centola is a medieval village in the municipality of Centola, which overlooks the valley of the Mingardo river, where there is a narrow gorge called the Devil’s Throat. The abandonment of the town began when the population gradually moved downstream due to the new road and railway infrastructures at the end of the 19th century and due to the village’s remote and inaccessible position. The old houses perched on the rock were difficult to access, for these reasons the inhabitants of the village began to move further down the valley, where the current Centola railway station stands – Palinuro – Marina di Camerota. Within 50-60 years the town was almost completely abandoned, until the end of the 1960s. Some houses in old San Severino continued to host some families and only in 1977 did the chapel of the old village stop being the church of the community of San Severino. The strategic position, the houses, the castle, the chapels, and many other details make the medieval village of San Severino one of the most fascinating places in Cilento. It houses the Museum of the Cilento Emigrant, which aims to be a tribute to all those Cilento people who found work in the last century in the coal mines of Pennsylvania.

On the other side of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, lies Roscigno Vecchia, a ghost town that has remained intact like an image frozen in time. It was abandoned in the early 20th century due to landslides and ground movements that made it uninhabitable. Walking through its streets, it is possible to admire the ancient stone houses, the furniture, everything as it once was. Starting from the square, dedicated to Giovanni Nicotera, with its church and its fountain, all around are stone houses, shops, portals, arches, windows and wrought iron balconies. We like to get lost in it Pompeii of the twentieth century, as they called it, in the black and white stairways and alleyways. An abandoned place, cleared at the beginning of the 20th century, following two special laws in favor of landslide villages. The inhabitants had moved away, moving to a safer, slightly higher center, the current town. From 1908 until 1964 everyone left except the family Dorin, the last inhabitant of the ancient village of Roscigno, who died in 2000, guardian of memories accumulated over the years, in the always same and always different moments of time. After her death they had found that large square, with its dilapidated and abandoned buildings Giuseppe Spagnuolo the guardian and the guide. The unforgettable man with the thick, white beard, however, disappeared last January. Over time he became the symbol of the village of Roscigno Vecchia, he welcomed tourists in the museum of rural civilization. Now everything remained intact, still, in an almost unreal silence. Except nature, which continues to do its job, marking time with the undaunted and flawless alternation of the days.