The seven ghost villages
Giuseppe Scandura
Near the village of Francavilla di Sicilia, along the same road, there are seven abandoned villages.
The seven ghost villages are the villages of Schisina, San Giovanni, Bucceri-Monastero, Pietra Pizzuta, Malfìtana, Piano Torre and Morfia.
The villages were built by the Sicilian Region in 1950 as part of the redevelopment projects of the the Agrarian Reform in Sicily, Eras, with the aim of using them as dwellings for the peasants assignees of the surrounding lands.
Borgo Schisina was the main village and, inside, it included the church, the parish priest's house, the school with the teachers' lodgings, the nursery school and the carabinieri barracks. In the village of Schisina some scenes from the film "The Adventure" by Michelangelo Antonioni were shot.
Overall, in the 7 villages, 164 houses were built and these were assigned to the peasants by drawing lots. However, many of the peasants refused the assignment because the houses consisted of only two rooms and there was no electricity and running water. Over the years, the houses in the villages were gradually abandoned.
