Hello All
Some ghost towns can be around a long time before they become a ghost town.
Bussana Vecchia (Old Bussana) is a 1,000 year old town in Liguria, a few kilometers from the Italian-French border. That became a ghost town in 1887.
Bussana was founded probably in the second half of the ninth century when the coastal region was repeatedly attacked by Saracens. It was built on the top of a hill to be easily defended.
In 1429 it had 250 inhabitants and it was granted autonomy from the Maritime Republic of Genoa. A period of major development followed and most of the current buildings were built in this period.
The French Riviera and western Liguria are at the junction of south-western Alps and Liguria basin, a region of moderate seismicity. The severest earthquake to hit Bussana struck the region on February 23, 1887 killing more than 2000 people. The worst of the damage in Bussana occurred at 6:21 on that Ash Wednesday morning, a twenty second seismic wave caused immediate destruction and deaths throughout the village.
The earthquake was the first recorded by a true seismograph built by Filippo Cecchi in Moncalieri, Italy.
Most buildings were severely damaged and the authorities decided to rebuild the village in a new site downhill called Bussana Nuova (New Bussana). The old village was abandoned and all of its buildings declared dangerous.
Hardluck
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