In the ghost town of Avena: a visit to the abandoned village

In a land of emigration and abandonment such as Calabria, every place has its ghosts. Those of Avena di Papasidero, in the province of Cosenza, still roam the tiny cluster of surviving houses.

Avena is the ghost village of Papasidero, a town in the Pollino National Park known for its important prehistoric cave.

Between prehistory and contemporary history, time has stood still in Avena di Papasidero.

How does a populated and lively village slowly turn into a "ghost town"? We ask ourselves this question as we stroll through the quiet streets of Avena di Papasidero, the small abandoned hamlet of the village. Nestled among the majestic slopes of Pollino, Avena still shows traces of a life closely linked to the mountains and the exploitation of the Lao Valley, now one of the most beautiful nature reserves in the region. A lush landscape that is the backdrop to a thousand-year history that came to an abrupt end on 21 March 1982.

This date marks the end of Avena di Papasidero, following the terrible earthquake that destroyed it. Founded around the 9th century and mentioned for the first time in written sources in 1079, Avena retains its ancient dignity among the ruins. A quiet village, clinging to the pale rock of Pollino, in a panoramic position, it dominates the entire valley and reminds everyone of the precariousness of passing time.

When you first arrive in Avena, you get the impression of being out of this world, in absolute solitude, but after a while you realise that this is not quite the case... an elderly couple still lives on the slopes of the village, grazing a flock of sheep. The animals populate Avena with a bucolic life, where the slow pace of nature gives contemporary man the well-being lost in the city. That is why visiting Avena di Papasidero is much more than a 'slow' experience: it is a real regenerating dive into the past.

Visiting Avena di Papasidero, passing by empty houses and deserted alleys, one realises that until the 1980s there was still a thriving community here, of which the two elderly residents are the only living witnesses. A community that had a small market, supplied every morning by a lorry that shuttled between the marina and the Pollino mountains.

Avena bears the scars of the earthquake, imprinted on the facades and walls of the huts. Rebuilt a little further down the valley, the modern village cannot compete with the charm of the old one, so much so that most of the inhabitants have preferred to move directly to the centre of Papasidero or to the coast. A stroll through the narrow streets reveals the true face of the village, embellished by the remains of the ancient Castle and the Basilian Convent which, together with the Church of the Holy Trinity (16th century), tell the story of an important and, in some ways, prosperous past.

Avena di Papasidero speaks the silent language of Calabrian 'ghost villages', transporting passing tourists into a parallel dimension that is difficult to forget and therefore 'eternal'.