shellyrogersrennRuderi di Tocco Caudio Vecchio
Do you like ghost stories? Are you afraid of the dark?
As you are driving along the isolated roads in Campania be on the lookout for Tocco Caudio. Perched upon a small, somewhat isolated and rocky promontory in the mountainous region near Benevento, this town now sleeps. Once a vibrant village, now only its skeleton remains.
Although originally established in the 1800s, Tocco Caudio is now dead and deserted of human life. The compact, narrow streets which allowed for safe passage if you were traveling on foot, are are now quiet pathways to memories and ghosts. The end began at the turn of the century and the invention of the auto. Those same streets which had once been comforting, as there were no rivers to cross, proved to be a hindrance. Locomotives were unable to pass. Visitors grew few.
Then, in 1980 and 1981 a series of earthquakes brought ruin to the historical center. The damage from the earthquakes was great. Walls fell. The narrow streets were now blocked with debris. And since the restrictive streets were unable to be widened, the residents of this once coruscating village fled. They started anew in nearby location overlooking where they had once called home.
Now there are two Tocco Caudio’s in Italy. If you find yourself traversing the area outside of Benevento toward Tamburno-Camposaura Regional Park (Parco Regionale del Taburno -Camposauro) perhaps you’ll hear a whisper upon the wind calling out to you to visit this old ruin. For now it is only Mother Nature with her beautiful daughters, Flora and Fauna, that reside within its boundaries. Here you’ll find the abandoned streets painted with wildflowers and wildlife. Or, after dark, will you find something else?
