What is Roscigno known for?

Roscigno Vecchia emptied after the 1902 landslide and relocation laws of 1902 and 1908, with most families gone by the 1920s. Italian press name for Roscigno Vecchia; the village stayed largely intact and is now an open-air museum of rural Cilento life. Self-appointed last resident, alone in the empty streets for over twenty years as guardian and tour guide until his death in January 2024.

Roscigno is a comune in the province of Salerno, Campania region of Italy, about 109 kilometers from Salerno.

Campania · Salerno

Roscigno

A Cilento ghost town at 570 meters, emptied by a 1902 landslide and known as the Pompeii of the twentieth century.

570m

Elevation

109 km / 68 mi

Nearest hub (Salerno)

625

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Parco Nazionale

Why come

Roscigno sits at 570 meters on the slope of Monte Pruno, inside the Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni National Park, sixty kilometers inland from Salerno. The comune has two settlements. Roscigno Nuovo, up the hill, holds the 625 current residents. Roscigno Vecchia, the original village built in the 1600s and 1700s, was emptied between 1902 and the 1920s after a landslide and the relocation laws of 1902 and 1908 moved the population to safer ground. The old village stayed largely intact: stone houses around Piazza Giovanni Nicotera, a fountain and washing basins still in the middle, the eighteenth-century Chiesa di San Nicola di Bari on a raised level above. Italian guides call it the Pompei del Novecento. Giuseppe Spagnuolo lived alone in the empty streets for over twenty years as the self-appointed guardian until he died in January 2024 at seventy-six. The village now functions as an open-air museum with an ethnographic collection in the former rectory.

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Gallery

4 photos · scroll →

Known for

Roscigno Vecchia
Stone village of the 1600s and 1700s, abandoned between 1902 and the 1920s after landslide damage and relocation laws; now an open-air ethnographic site.
Piazza Giovanni Nicotera
Main square of Roscigno Vecchia with the original fountain and public washing basins, framed by the empty houses and the eighteenth-century church.
Chiesa di San Nicola di Bari
Eighteenth-century parish church on a raised platform above the piazza, still unrestored, with a preserved wooden ceiling visible through the doors.
Museo della Civiltà Contadina
Six-room ethnographic museum in the former rectory and municipal house with about five hundred objects on grain, wool, wine and oil production.
Monte Pruno
Forested peak above the village, the watershed between the Calore Lucano and the Tanagro, hiked from Roscigno Vecchia in around two hours.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months that suit Roscigno. The Cilento hills stay green, the air is mild and the empty streets of Roscigno Vecchia photograph well in the low light. July and August are hot, often crossing thirty-two degrees, and the ridge offers little shade between houses; many visitors come early in the morning. November through March is quiet, often wet, and parts of the old village close after rain because the stone surfaces stay slick. School groups and day-trippers from Salerno or Paestum cluster on spring weekends. Outside those, the place is mostly silent, which is what it is for.