Urbex in Italy is one of the richest and most varied scenes in Europe. From the medieval ruins of Craco in Basilicata, to the plague island of Poveglia in the Venetian lagoon, to the orientalist palaces of Sammezzano in Tuscany and the former Basaglia-era asylums scattered across the peninsula, Italian urban exploration offers a unique playground: more than 22,700 geolocated spots on our map, distributed across all 20 regions, from South Tyrol to Sicily.
In this article we have selected 14 abandoned places in Italy not to be missed: forgotten castles, ghost villages, historic asylums, modernist hotels lost in the Dolomites and monumental land-art cracks. For each one, below its dedicated section, you will find an "Add to my map" button that saves the GPS coordinates directly into your personal space, for free and without a credit card.
The terms Italian urbex, abandoned places in Italy, lost places, ghost hamlets and ghost villages in Italy all refer to the same reality: an architectural, industrial, medical and religious heritage that history has left behind : earthquakes, landslides, health laws, rural exodus : and which today attracts photographers, urban explorers and curious travellers from our country and from all over the world.
Italian urbex for free: why Urbex Maps changes the game
Before diving into the 14 spots, a quick word on what makes this guide different. Most websites that talk about free Italian urbex put "free" in the title and then redirect you to a private forum with a 50-euro subscription or to a closed Telegram group. Here the promise is concrete: under each location you will find an "Add to my map" button that drops the GPS coordinates into your personal space, with no credit card and no subscription.
Behind this mechanism stands a community of more than 40,000 explorers who have been reporting field information since 2021. Every coordinate published in this article has been verified at least twice: once by the original contributor, and a second time by a regional moderator who confirms the place still exists : not demolished, not permanently walled up, not converted into a coworking space.
The 14 entries below are ordered by visual power and historical importance. We open with the undisputed star, Poveglia, and close with the restored Liberty example of Villa Zanelli in Savona. For each region we cross, you will also find a link to our dedicated deep-dive (Veneto, Tuscany, Calabria, Sicily and so on) : more technical articles with the full map of abandoned places in the region.
1. Poveglia: the cursed island of the Venetian lagoon
Three and a half kilometres south of central Venice, between the Lido and Malamocco, rises the island of [Poveglia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poveglia) : seven hectares of emerged land, a truncated Romanesque bell tower, and an international reputation as "the most haunted island in the world" that English-language outlets keep feeding with suspicious regularity. Venetian chronicles first mention it in the year 421. For fourteen centuries the island was inhabited, cultivated, exploited for fishing and salt, until the wars of 1379 drove its residents away.
From 1776, Poveglia became the lazaretto of the Serenissima: a quarantine station for ships arriving from the East and for cargoes suspected of carrying plague. Over the following centuries, according to the highest estimates, between 100,000 and 160,000 people are said to have died on the island : bodies burned and buried in mass graves. Archaeological research today confirms deep layers of ash and human remains across most of the emerged land.
In 1922, the Venetians converted the island into a psychiatric hospital, active until 1968. After it closed, total abandonment set in. The buildings : the church of San Vitale reduced to a warehouse, the defensive octagons of the lazaretto, the asylum pavilion with its empty windows : are today in full structural collapse. Rotten floors, walls giving way, vegetation that has reclaimed the ground.
On 1 August 2025, the Poveglia per tutti association, after years of legal battle against public auctions, obtained from the State Property Office a 6-year concession on the northern part of the island to build an urban lagoon park reserved for Venetian residents. Tourists, for now, remain officially excluded. The few private boats that approach are dissuaded by the Coast Guard. For those who want to get close without risking a fine, the line 20 vaporetto from San Zaccaria passes within 200 metres of the pier, close enough to photograph the bell tower.
If you want to dig deeper into Poveglia, we have dedicated a comprehensive 6,000-word dossier to the island : history in seven chapters, debunked legends, 2026 legal status, how to approach it legally by kayak or vaporetto, plus an extensive FAQ. If you would rather explore the history of abandoned places in Veneto, we recommend our dedicated article on urbex in Veneto : with the full map of the 1,391 spots catalogued between Venice, Padua, Verona, Treviso and their provinces.
2. Sammezzano Castle: Tuscany's forgotten oriental castle
On the hills of Reggello, about thirty kilometres south-east of Florence, stands one of the most extravagant monuments in Italy: [Sammezzano Castle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammezzano_Castle). From the outside, a white palace with a central loggia that could be any Medici villa. Inside, 365 rooms of pure visual madness: the Peacock Room with its filigreed dome, the all-stucco White Room, the Lily Room, the Hall of Mirrors with its kaleidoscopic effects, Moorish arches, mosaics, Arabic calligraphy, gilded ceilings. It is the largest example of Moorish architecture in Italy and probably in all of Europe.
The original building dates from 1605, a simple rural villa. The decisive transformation is the work of Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d'Aragona, an eccentric marquis, polyglot and Risorgimento patriot, who inherited the property and reshaped it between 1853 and 1889, devoting nearly forty years of his life to it. King Umberto I of Italy stayed there in 1878. After the marquis died, the castle passed from hand to hand, eventually becoming a luxury hotel after the war. The business thrived for a few decades, then declined, and in the early 1990s the hotel closed. Abandonment followed.
For over thirty years the castle remained sealed off, protected by private security and by the judicial mystery of public auctions that went unsold one after another. The civic movement Save Sammezzano, active since 2015, kept media attention alive with rallies, photo books and online petitions. The breakthrough came in 2025: the Florentine Moretti family purchased the property in spring, and the official restoration and safety works began in October. The long-term goal is to restore the monumental main floor and reopen the interiors and historic park to the public as a museum.
Until the reopening, the only way to see Sammezzano up close remains illegal entry, which we advise against for obvious legal reasons, or the rare FAI spring days, when the castle is exceptionally opened for guided tours by mandatory booking.
For the complete map of abandoned places in the region, see our deep-dive on urbex in Tuscany : 1,234 spots across Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena and their provinces.
3. Cretto di Burri: the concrete shroud of Old Gibellina
On 15 January 1968, at 1:28 PM, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the Belice Valley in western Sicily. The toll of the Belice earthquake was devastating: 296 dead, more than 1,000 injured, 100,000 homeless. Fourteen towns were destroyed, including Gibellina, reduced to a heap of rubble. The government decided not to rebuild the town on its original site (unstable ground) but to build a New Gibellina twenty kilometres further down the valley, entrusting it to an exceptional line-up of contemporary artists and architects: Alberto Burri, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Ludovico Quaroni, Pietro Consagra.
On the site of old Gibellina, the ruins were left for years to rot under the Sicilian sun. In 1984, Alberto Burri proposed a radical gesture: covering the rubble with a one-and-a-half-metre-thick layer of white concrete, following exactly the layout of the streets of the dead town. A monumental shroud, a giant cretto : a work amplifying the Cretti series the artist was producing on an easel scale. The idea was to turn tragedy into a land-art memorial.
Work began in 1985. It was interrupted in 1989 for lack of funds, after less than a third of the project had been completed. Burri died in 1995, the work unfinished. Only in 2015, for the centenary of the artist's birth, was the Great Cretto finally completed. The result: 85,000 square metres (21 acres) of streaked white concrete, one of the largest land-art works in the world.
It can be visited freely on foot, walking through the ancient streets crystallised in concrete. The cracks (the "cretti") are two or three metres wide and a metre and a half deep: they ideally trace the old roads of the town. It is a powerful experience, especially at sunset, when the long shadows enhance the absurd geometry. A mandatory pilgrimage for anyone who loves contemporary art, but also for those who want to understand how Italy has managed (or failed to manage) its disasters.
Explore the Sicilian urbex scene further in our dedicated article on urbex in Sicily : from the abandoned sulphur mines of the interior to the wrecks on the coast, passing through the former seaside colonies.
4. Craco: the medieval ghost town of Basilicata
Perched 391 metres up on a clay hill, [Craco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craco) is the most cinematic ghost village in Italy : literally: it served as a set for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004), James Bond's Quantum of Solace (2008), Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), King David (1985) and, more recently, Gibson's upcoming Resurrection of the Christ. Hollywood chose Craco because nowhere else offers such a quality-price ratio between intact Middle Ages and absolute silence.
The history of Craco is one of geological instability turned into destiny. The town, founded in the 8th century by Basilian monks who called it Graculum (small ploughed field), is built on terrible clay-rich ground, with red, green and grey clays of different drainage capacities. The 20th-century urbanisation works (sewers, aqueduct, asphalted roads) definitively destabilised the soil. The 1963 rains triggered an enormous landslide that brought down entire buildings in the old centre. The population (1,800 souls at the time) was evacuated and resettled in the valley, in Craco Peschiera.
The 1972 floods buried any hope of repopulation. The Irpinia earthquake of 23 November 1980 delivered the death blow: the old site was definitively abandoned. Since then, the limestone houses, the medieval churches, the Norman tower, the Cammarota palace and the mother church of San Nicola have been left to natural decay.
Added in 2010 to the World Monuments Fund watch list, Craco is today a scenic park managed by the municipality. It can only be visited with mandatory guide, safety helmet and proper footwear (the streets are uneven and unpredictable collapses occur). Guided tours leave from the information point at the entrance to the village, cost 5-10 euros per person and last over an hour. No free entry, although many urbexers ignore the rules by climbing up at dawn along the side paths.
On Italian ghost villages, we recommend our deep-dive dedicated to urbex in Basilicata and Calabria : from the Sassi region of Matera to the abandoned villages of the Lucanian interior.
5. Pentedattilo: the village of the five fingers in Calabria
The name comes from ancient Greek πέντα-δάκτυλος (pénta-dáktylos, "five fingers") and refers to the shape of the mountain on which the village stands : Monte Calvario, which from the south-east slope looks like a Cyclopean hand with five rocky pinnacles. Beneath this hand of stone, at 250 metres altitude, lies [Pentedattilo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentedattilo), a hamlet of Melito di Porto Salvo in the province of Reggio Calabria : one of the most evocative ghost villages of southern Italy.
Founded in 640 BC as a colony of the Greek city of Chalcis, Pentedattilo was for centuries a prosperous economic and military centre, controlling the course of the Sant'Elia river. Until the end of the 19th century it preserved the Griko dialect, a direct legacy of Magna Graecia. In 1686 the village was the scene of the so-called Alberti massacre: the dominant noble family was exterminated in a bloody night by their Abenavoli rivals, a dramatic episode still alive in local oral tradition.
The 1783 earthquake seriously damaged the village, and from that moment a slow but steady exodus toward the coast began, especially toward Melito. In 1968 the village was officially declared uninhabitable by the civil engineering authority, and by 1971 abandonment was total.
Since the mid-1990s, however, Pentedattilo has experienced a partial rebirth: European volunteer associations have restored some houses, reopened artisan workshops, and have organised since 2005 an International Short Film Festival (in late August) that attracts filmmakers and curious visitors from all over the world. It has become Calabria's most "alive" ghost village, where a handful of permanent residents (one or two, according to censuses) coexist with donkeys and goats among the ruins.
Access is easy by car from the A2 motorway: Melito di Porto Salvo exit, then 6 km of panoramic road climbing toward the mountain. Free parking at the foot of the village, walk up (15 minutes, stone path). The best visits are in spring and autumn, avoiding the scorching summer heat of southern Calabria.
Deepen your knowledge of the region's urbex in our article on urbex in Calabria : 233 spots catalogued among ghost villages, abandoned convents and unfinished infrastructure.
6. Roghudi Vecchio: the Greek heritage of the Aspromonte
Less than thirty kilometres from Pentedattilo, but in an entirely different geographical setting, lies [Roghudi Vecchio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roghudi) : one of the most dramatically positioned villages in all of Italy. Clinging to a ridge 527 metres high in the heart of the Aspromonte National Park, above the Amendolea torrent, the village is reachable only via a very narrow, twisting 20 km road starting from Roccaforte del Greco.
Founded in the 11th century, Roghudi was for nine centuries one of the main centres of the Calabrian Griko community, the last Greek linguistic island of mainland Italy. Its inhabitants still spoke Calabrian Greek in the 1970s : an ancient language, related to modern Greek but with archaic features going back to Magna Graecia and Byzantium.
The catastrophic floods of 1971 and 1973 made the village officially uninhabitable. About 1,650 inhabitants were evacuated and relocated on the Ionian coast, in new Roghudi near Melito Porto Salvo. Since then, Roghudi Vecchio has been frozen in time: furniture inside the houses, plates on the tables, laundry on the lines, photos on the bedside tables. Wild goats graze in the square. The churches of Santa Maria Annunziata and San Nicola di Bari are still standing, but with collapsed roofs.
Important warning: in March 2024, a 27-year-old Greek TikToker, Tzane, died falling from the balcony of an abandoned house in Roghudi Vecchio. The railing, rotten after fifty years of abandonment, gave way under her weight while she was posing for a photo. The accident was a wake-up call: the structures are fragile, floors can collapse without warning, railings are deceptive. Do not venture onto balconies, terraces, stairs or roofs. National Geographic published an in-depth report on the village in 2022, available online.
Access to Roghudi Vecchio remains free but not easy: narrow mountain road, the last bends suitable only for small cars, no phone signal for the last 10 km. Recommended to visit it in a pair or small group, never alone, and to bring water, a headlamp and mountain footwear.
7. Apice Vecchia: the "modern Pompeii" of the Sannio
About fifteen kilometres east of Benevento, on the inland hills of Campania, lies [Apice Vecchia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apice) : one of the most impressive ghost villages in Italy, nicknamed the "Pompeii of the Sannio" for its state of preservation and the sense of suspended time that strikes anyone who enters it.
The origins of Apice are ancient, Roman (some structures date to the 1st century AD), and it passed through Norman and Lombard eras. It preserves a Norman castle in stone and a medieval core with a spindle-shaped layout, typical of Apennine villages.
On 21 August 1962, at 8:09 PM and again at 8:46 PM, two strong tremors struck the inland Irpinia region. Seventeen dead in the area, enormous damage. Apice Vecchia was immediately declared uninhabitable by the civil engineering authority. That same night, families were evacuated into military tents, and in the following months construction of Apice Nuova began, downhill on flat, safe ground. Some inhabitants, however, refused to relocate, staying in the old village out of attachment or poverty.
The Irpinia earthquake of 23 November 1980 (magnitude 6.9, 2,914 dead in total) forced even the last holdouts to leave. Since then, Apice Vecchia has been a town suspended in time. Inside the buildings you still find furniture, personal belongings, clothes hanging, photos on bedside tables, food cans in the pantries, open school registers. The streets are walkable, the doors are not walled up. The village is one of the rare Italian ghost villages that can be visited freely, for free, by day, without security or ticket.
Access is from the A16 Benevento exit, then a provincial road for 15 km. Free parking at the edge of the village. Beware of unstable structures: some buildings are in partial collapse, do not venture into houses with unstable walls. The village has been photographed by Roman Robroek (the internationally renowned Dutch urbex photographer), who describes it as "the most emotionally charged in all of Italy".
For the full map, see our deep-dive on urbex in Campania : from the Avellino factory to the Episcopio sanatorium, passing through the seismic villages of Irpinia.
8. Monteruga: the fascist rural village of Salento
In the open Salento countryside, about thirty kilometres west of Lecce and 5 kilometres from Salice Salentino, lies [Monteruga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monteruga) : a rural village founded by the fascist regime in 1928 and progressively abandoned from the 1980s onwards. An almost unique case in Italy: it is not an ancient village brought down by earthquakes, but a community designed from scratch by the regime to manage the large agricultural estates of Apulia.
The village was built to house the labourers working in the vineyards, olive groves and tobacco factories of the great estate of the same name. In the 1950s, thanks to the agrarian reform, Monteruga prospered: about 800 inhabitants, a primary school, a parish church dedicated to Sant'Antonio Abate, a post office, a central square, a monumental wine cellar, an industrial-sized bakery, an oil mill, a tobacconist's. It was a self-sufficient, orderly town in miniature, with separate but connected workers' quarters and managers' houses.
After the 1970s, the rural exodus to the northern cities progressively emptied the village. The land was privatised, the cellar closed, the school closed. By the 1980s, Monteruga was completely uninhabited. In the following decades it became a playground for neo-pagan and satanist groups: the church was deconsecrated, vandalised, the scene of nocturnal rites documented by local press.
In recent years the property has been acquired by an Italian entrepreneur who has installed an armed guard residing in a renovated structure near the main entrance. Free access is no longer possible, but organised visits on request are still possible by contacting the owners through local Salento agencies. It is worth it for the charm of Apulian rationalist architecture and the quality of preservation.
Go deeper with our dedicated article on urbex in Apulia : 194 spots including abandoned farmhouses, disused railways and agrarian reform villages.
9. Old Asylum of Colorno: the madhouse of the ducal palace
Fifteen kilometres north of Parma, on the Po plain crossed by the Parma torrent, stands one of the most imposing residences in Emilia: the [Royal Palace of Colorno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_of_Colorno), the "Farnese Versailles". Begun in the 15th century as a fortress, transformed into a ducal palace between the 16th and 18th centuries, it is today the seat of ALMA : International School of Italian Cuisine and can be visited as a museum. But behind the main facade, in the rear volumes of the complex, hides a much lesser-known chapter: the Old Asylum of Colorno.
In 1873, during a cholera epidemic in Parma, the city administration decided to provisionally transfer the urban psychiatric hospital to the unused spaces in the rear wing of the ducal palace and the adjacent Dominican convent. The "provisional" became permanent: the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital of Colorno occupied 32,500 square metres, and operated uninterrupted until 1978, the year of the Basaglia Law 180 that closed all Italian asylums.
Small compared to giants such as Mombello, Colorno played a crucial historical role: Professor Franco Basaglia was its director for one year (1971-72), and it was here , according to testimonies collected by his students, that the conviction that psychiatric hospitals had to be closed definitively matured. Law 180 of 13 May 1978, which put an end to the Italian asylum system (then unique in the world), is largely the child of that period. Basaglia died in 1980, but the "Basaglia revolution" continues to be studied in every psychiatry faculty on the planet.
After the asylum's closure, the buildings were definitively emptied in the 1990s. Today they are owned by the Parma local health authority (AUSL) and in a state of total abandonment. Inside , accessible only through (illegal) entry, you can still see the large murals by the Brazilian artist Herbert Baglione, his black silhouettes that ideally represent the souls of patients freed from confinement. A symbolic visit, considered by many urbexers among the most moving in Italy.
The historic part of the palace (the facade, the garden, the ducal apartments, the chapel of San Liborio) is of course freely visitable as a museum, and we strongly recommend visiting it. The asylum remains off-limits.
Go deeper with our article on urbex in Emilia-Romagna : from the railway workshops of Bologna to the spinning mills of the Parma lowlands, passing through the former sugar factories of Romagna.
10. Former Mombello Asylum: "the giant of Italian hospitals"
Twenty-five kilometres north of Milan, in Limbiate (Monza-Brianza), stood the largest psychiatric hospital in Italy: the [Mombello Asylum](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Pusterla), officially named the Giuseppe Antonini Psychiatric Hospital. An enormous complex : several dozen hectares, dozens of pavilions, its own church, a theatre, a cemetery, production workshops : which in 1960 housed over 3,000 patients, earning it the nickname "the giant of Italian hospitals".
The original heart of the complex is Villa Crivelli Pusterla, a Lombard patrician residence of 14th-century origin, used until the 18th century as a suburban hunting villa by the Pusterla family. Purchased in 1863 by the municipality of Milan, it was transformed into a psychiatric hospital and progressively expanded with a series of neoclassical and rationalist pavilions.
The golden age was that of director Giuseppe Antonini (1911-1931), a progressive psychiatrist who organised the hospital as a self-sufficient city: printing works, carpentry, textile workshops, bakery, industrial laundry, sports fields, complete medical services (surgery, obstetrics, dentistry, radiology). The idea was to treat the sick through work and physical activity, well ahead of the concepts of occupational therapy and community psychiatry. The hospital was dedicated to him in 1966.
After Law 180 of 1978, Mombello began a slow process of dismantling. Some pavilions continued to function as territorial services until the 1990s, then everything was definitively closed. Today a small part of the complex still houses administrative services of the ASST Brianza, but the vast majority of the pavilions : including the theatre, the church, the basements and the large historical pavilions : are in a state of total abandonment.
Mombello is probably the most media-covered urbex site in Italy: dozens of YouTube videos, television reports, and a persistent urban legend according to which Mussolini was briefly interned there in 1903 (a story actually disputed, never confirmed by archival documents). Security is present, but the size of the complex makes total surveillance difficult. Amateur explorations are frequent, but the structures are very fragile and the basements dangerous.
For the full map, see our deep-dive on urbex in Lombardy : 3,478 spots catalogued across Milan, Bergamo, Brescia and their provinces.
11. Ville Sbertoli: the psychiatric asylum of Pistoia and the ghost of Lombroso
In the hills north of Pistoia, in a hamlet called Collina, stands a complex of about ten buildings scattered in the woods : eclectic late-19th-century villas with turrets, terraces and loggias: the [Ville Sbertoli](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville_Sbertoli). Behind this almost seaside-style landscape lies one of the most dramatic stories in Italian psychiatry.
The complex was founded in 1868 by the wealthy merchant Agostino Sbertoli, the father of a mentally disabled son whom he tried his whole life to cure. He converted his country villa into a private psychiatric clinic, one of the first in Italy, initially reserved for aristocratic European families. Patients from France, Germany, Russia and England arrived in Pistoia to be treated at the Sbertoli clinic, which specialists of the era considered cutting-edge.
Expansion between 1880 and 1900 turned the site into a small medical city: over twenty structures on 51 hectares, of which nine residential villas for patients. Among the doctors who worked there was also Cesare Lombroso, the controversial founder of criminal anthropology, who stayed there several times as a consultant. Anecdotes about his visits are still told in the area : although his theories on "criminal madness" are now considered pseudoscience, at the time they enjoyed European prestige.
During the Second World War, the villas were requisitioned by the Nazis and used as a political prison for opponents of the regime. After 1945, the complex returned to the province and became the provincial psychiatric hospital of Pistoia. Closure came on 13 May 1978, with the Basaglia Law. In the 1990s, the emptying was complete.
Today the complex is in mixed ownership (province + private). A guard is present and urbexers are regularly spotted and turned away : the most famous YouTube videos often show the protagonists "caught" and chased off. The structures are unstable in many places, with collapsed floors and asbestos present in the roofs.
Go deeper with our article on urbex in Tuscany : from the textile manufacturing of Prato to the sanatoriums in upper Garfagnana.
12. Hotel Paradiso: Gio Ponti's Alpine dream forgotten at 2,160 metres
At the bottom of Val Martello, in South Tyrol, two hours of winding road from the thermal baths of Merano, at 2,160 metres altitude, stands a modernist ruin that takes your breath away: the Hotel Paradiso del Cevedale, an early work by the great Italian architect Gio Ponti : the same architect of the Pirellone in Milan and of the magazine Domus.
Commissioned by the Milanese industrialist Emilio Penati in 1933, designed by Ponti together with Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini, the hotel was built between 1935 and 1936 and opened to the public in 1937. Conceived as a prototype for a new sporting Alpine tourism (skiing, summer mountaineering, hiking), it had 150 beds on 7 floors, a horizontally developed plan with a convex semicircular end, continuous balconies, terraces, and a daring colour palette: green originally, then (after the 1952 renovation) Venetian red that stood out against the backdrop of the Cevedale glacier.
The initial success was real but short-lived: from 1937 to 1940 the hotel registered full bookings, hosting mainly wealthy Milanese and Northern European tourists. The outbreak of war interrupted activity. In 1943 the hotel was requisitioned by the Nazis and turned into an espionage centre (the proximity of the Swiss border made it strategic). After the war, repeated attempts to reopen: in 1946 the hotel went bankrupt, briefly reopened in the early 1950s with two added floors and a semicircular garage wing, but definitively closed and was abandoned from 1955.
Since then, seventy years of absolute solitude in the Stelvio National Park. The ruin is today an icon of Italian modernism in decay: peeling yellow walls, rusted sheet metal, internal stairs plunging into the void, sun pouring in through windowless openings. In 2025 Domus magazine dedicated a major feature to its revival, while the Vienna Polytechnic published a detailed revitalisation study : but for now no project has started.
Access: Coldrano roundabout (Val Venosta), then 25 km of valley road up to the Upper Val Martello car park (Maso Corto). From the car park, 10 minutes on foot along a well-marked trail, and you reach the foot of the ruin. The exterior visit is free and unrestricted. Entering the inside is formally forbidden and dangerous: collapsed floors, unstable stairs, frequent falling debris.
13. Casa Sperimentale: the family brutalism of Fregene
Thirty kilometres west of Rome, in the pine forest of Fregene (municipality of Fiumicino), hidden among the maritime pines and the villas of the artists, stands one of the most radical domestic pieces of architecture of 20th-century Italy: the [Casa Sperimentale](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_sperimentale) : also known as Casa Albero or tree-house, because it seems literally suspended between the trees of the pinewood.
The building was designed and built between 1968 and 1975 by a family of architects: Giuseppe Perugini (a leading figure of the Roman school, a collaborator of Bruno Zevi), his wife Uga De Plaisant and their son Raynaldo Perugini. They wanted a family holiday home, but also a theoretical laboratory : a manifesto of modular organic architecture.
The result is extraordinary: a reinforced concrete structure that is fully modular and demountable. The walls, floors and panels are simply bolted: in theory, the building can be disassembled and reassembled in a different configuration. The access staircase, painted bright red, is retractable: once raised, it completely isolates the dwelling from the ground, like a suspended castle. A three-metre-diameter concrete sphere serves as the main bedroom, also suspended in the void.
Often classified as brutalism, Casa Sperimentale is actually the child of the APAO (Association for Organic Architecture), a movement founded in 1944 by Bruno Zevi and Giuseppe Perugini. The idea was to build a "living" architecture, in dialogue with nature, that could change over time like an organism. Raynaldo Perugini speaks of the house as an "unfinishable endless house".
The house was the centre of a small bohemian circle in the 1970s. Federico Fellini shot scenes from his films there. The Bottega Veneta fashion house used it as a backdrop for an advertising campaign. After Giuseppe Perugini's death in 1995, however, the structure fell into abandonment.
In recent years Raynaldo Perugini, with the support of architects' associations, has begun a partial restoration. Occasional guided tours are organised (booking calendar), often led by Raynaldo himself, who shares family anecdotes. The house is located at Via Porto Azzurro 57, Fregene : anyone who loves modern architecture should try to fit a visit into their Roman itineraries.
Explore the Lazio urbex scene further in our article on urbex in Lazio : from the disused railways of Tuscia to the farmhouses of the coast.
14. Villa Zanelli: Savona's Liberty jewel brought back to life
On the Ligurian coast of Savona, in the Legino district, a few metres from the sea, stands a building that until a few years ago was one of the most photographed icons of Ligurian urbex: [Villa Zanelli](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Zanelli). A masterpiece of Italian Liberty style completed in 1907 by the Turin architect Gottardo Gussoni, commissioned by the sea captain Nicolò Zanelli as a summer residence : according to family tradition, dedicated to his fiancée Rosa.
The building is one of the richest examples of Italian Art Nouveau: octagonal turrets, floral stained glass, wrought-iron mascarons, plant decorations climbing the facades, geometric mosaics, polychrome marble floors, ceilings painted with botanical motifs. A synthesis of stylistic flair typical of the Ligurian Belle Époque, when the wealthy industrialists and shipowners of Northern Italy had holiday residences built on the Riviera.
The Zanelli family kept the property until 1933, when they sold it to the municipality of Milan, which turned it into an international seaside colony. During the Second World War, the building served as a Red Cross military hospital : traces of the large red crosses painted on the outer walls were still visible until a few years ago. After the war, it returned to colony use, until a partial collapse in 1998 led to its definitive closure.
For almost twenty years, from 1998 to 2017, Villa Zanelli was one of the most visited urbex spots in Italy: a Liberty ruin in full collapse, with nature reclaiming the building, faded mosaics, shattered stained glass. Photographers from around the world came to Savona to document it.
In 2017 a major restoration operation was launched by the Dodi Moss studio: cleaning of the facades, restoration of the decorations, restoration of the mosaics, reopening of the historic garden. The works lasted seven years and were completed in 2024. Villa Zanelli reopened to the public in 2025 as a luxury hotel, restaurant and exhibition space, a rare example in Italy of urbex "transformed" into a living place. It is technically no longer an abandoned place, but it remains iconic for the history it has lived through.
We have included it in this list as a symbol of Italian urbex: the confirmation that many of the places we today consider abandoned can (when there is political will, private funding and serious projects) come back to life.
Go deeper with our article on urbex in Liguria : from the former steelworks of Cornigliano to the military forts of the Riviera di Levante.
15. Volterra Asylum: the Tuscan madhouse of NOF4's graffiti
A few kilometres from the Etruscan centre of Volterra (Tuscany), the Ferri Pavilion is the symbol of the Former Psychiatric Hospital of Volterra, one of the largest Italian asylums of the first half of the 20th century, housing up to 6,000 patients in the 1950s. Founded as Asilo Dementi in 1888, directed by Luigi Scabia (1900-1934) and definitively closed after the Basaglia Law between 1978 and 1996.
Its most moving legacy is the "Brick Bible" by Oreste Fernando Nannetti (NOF4), a schizophrenic patient who carved 180 metres of wall graffiti with the buckle of his uniform between 1958 and 1973. A unique testimony of outsider art, today protected as historical heritage.
To go further : our comprehensive dossier on the Volterra Asylum (6,500 words) retraces the hospital's history, the historic therapies, Nannetti's figure and the Basaglia legacy.
16. Abbey of San Galgano: the Tuscan sword in the stone
The Abbey of San Galgano (Chiusdino, prov. Siena) is one of the most iconic abandoned sacred places in Italy: a roofless Gothic Cistercian basilica, built between 1218 and 1288 by monks who came from Casamari. The bell tower collapsed in 1781 (struck by lightning) and the deconsecration of 1789 (Leopoldine reforms) left standing only the silent walls that today welcome thousands of visitors each year.
A few metres away, on the hill of Montesiepi, stands the round Romanesque chapel with the real sword in the stone of San Galgano Guidotti (1180), dated to the 12th century by C14 analysis of the University of Pavia (2001), perhaps the inspirational source of the Arthurian Excalibur legend (thesis by Mario Moiraghi, 2003). Tarkovsky filmed the final scene of Nostalghia there (1983).
To go further : our comprehensive dossier on the Abbey of San Galgano (6,600 words) tells the history, the legend and the authentic sword.
17. Rocchetta Mattei: the eclectic castle of Cesare Mattei
On the hill of Riola di Vergato, in the Bolognese Apennines (Emilia-Romagna), the Rocchetta Mattei is one of the most surreal castles in Italy: a Moorish-medieval-eclectic architectural fantasy built between 1850 and 1888 by Count Cesare Mattei (1809-1896), a Bolognese nobleman and founder of Electrohomeopathy, his personal esoteric medical doctrine.
Its 90 rooms alternate reproductions of the Alhambra of Granada (Hall of Peace), Arab courtyards, hexagonal pavilions and alchemical crypts. Dostoevsky himself mentions Mattei in The Demons. After decades of abandonment in the 20th century, the Carisbo Foundation completed the restoration in 2015 and it is now visitable by booking.
To go further : our comprehensive dossier on the Rocchetta Mattei (6,900 words) explores Mattei's biography, his electrohomeopathic cures and the visionary architecture.
18. Villa de Vecchi (Casa Rossa of Cortenova): the "haunted" villa of Valsassina
In Valsassina (prov. Lecco, Lombardy), immersed in the woods above Cortenova, stands Villa de Vecchi, nicknamed "Casa Rossa" ("Red House") for the colour of its local sandstone facade. Built between 1854 and 1857 by the architect Alessandro Sidoli for Count Felice de Vecchi (1816-1862), it is today one of the most mythologised abandoned villas in Italy.
The legends about Aleister Crowley or a suicide in the villa have actually been debunked: Felice died in Milan of liver cirrhosis, his wife Carolina had already passed away in 1851, and Crowley never set foot there (he was in Cefalù 1920-1923). The landslide of December 2002 destroyed Bindo but spared the villa, which remains inaccessible for safety reasons (private property).
To go further : our comprehensive dossier on Villa de Vecchi (8,000 words) debunks the legends and reconstructs the true history.
19. Consonno: the Las Vegas of Brianza in ruins
A few kilometres from Lecco (Lombardy), the agricultural village of Consonno was purchased in 1962 by the shipowner Count Mario Bagno (1923-2009) for 22.5 million lire and completely demolished to build a "Las Vegas of Brianza" : Hotel Plaza, restaurants, Chinese pagoda, minaret, miniature Statue of Liberty, space pavilion. The megalomaniac dream attracted tourists between 1968 and 1976.
The October 1976 landslide (50,000 m³) cut the only access road and definitively isolated the village. After decades of abandonment, vandalism and failed sale attempts (2018-2024 auction, asking price 12-15 M€), Consonno is today nominated to FAI Luoghi del Cuore (2024-2025).
To go further : our comprehensive dossier on Consonno (7,000 words) retraces Bagno's dream, the 1976 landslide and the auction sale.
20. Balestrino: the ghost village of the Del Carretto castle
In the hinterland of Savona (Liguria), Balestrino is one of the most extensive and photogenic ghost villages in Italy: a medieval cluster perched beneath the Del Carretto castle (a family attested since 1091 with Bonifacio del Vasto), definitively evacuated in 1953 after decades of earthquakes (1887, magnitude 6.7) and landslides.
The residents moved to the "new village" further down. The castle was the subject of an Art Bonus restoration in the 2010-2020 period and is private property. The old village has been fenced off since 2013, but the "Discover Balestrino" association and FAI Days organise guided tours. Balestrino is famous for having been the set of Capricorn village in the film Inkheart (2008, Iain Softley with Brendan Fraser).
To go further : our comprehensive dossier on Balestrino (6,200 words) tells the story of the Del Carretto family, the 1953 evacuation and the castle restoration.
FAQ - Abandoned places in Italy
What are the most famous abandoned places in Italy?
The five best known internationally are Poveglia (the plague island of Venice), Craco (the ghost town of Basilicata), Sammezzano Castle (Tuscany), the Cretto di Burri in Gibellina (Sicily) and the Former Mombello Asylum (Lombardy). All five attract thousands of visitors each year and are regularly covered by international outlets such as National Geographic, CNN and the BBC.
Is it legal to visit abandoned places in Italy?
Access to private property without authorisation constitutes trespassing on a dwelling (article 614 of the Italian Criminal Code) or invasion of land or buildings (article 633), offences punishable by up to 2 years' imprisonment or a fine. Although the actual sanction against explorers who do not steal or vandalise is rarely applied (usually limited to a police report), it is technically illegal. Several places on our list : such as Pentedattilo, Apice Vecchia, the Cretto di Burri : are however freely visitable because they are publicly owned or have unguarded access.
How to find abandoned places near me in Italy?
Our interactive world map catalogues 22,765 spots in Italy distributed across all 20 regions. Each spot includes GPS coordinates, a satellite photo, a description and current status. You can browse the map for free, unlock some spots with the free programme (such as those in this article) and purchase regional or thematic packs (castles, hospitals, ghost villages…) starting from 4.90 euros.
What are the most famous ghost villages in Italy?
In addition to Craco, Pentedattilo, Roghudi, Apice and Monteruga mentioned in this article, worth noting are: Balestrino (Liguria), Consonno (Lombardy), Celleno Vecchio (Lazio), Galeria (Lazio), Romagnano al Monte (Campania), Civita di Bagnoregio (the "dying town", Lazio), Africo Vecchio and Cirella Vecchia (Calabria). Italy has more than 6,000 ghost or semi-abandoned villages, according to ISTAT estimates, and is probably the European country with the richest heritage of abandoned villages.
What is the difference between urbex and tourist visit of an abandoned place?
Urbex (urban exploration) is the active exploration of abandoned places for documentary, photographic or historical purposes, generally on private property and without explicit authorisation. Tourism of abandoned places (dark tourism or memory tourism) instead concerns places open to the public with a ticket, a guide or free entry (Craco, Cretto, Pentedattilo). The main difference is legality: authorised tourist visit vs unauthorised access. For many urbexers the nuance is also ethically important.
What safety precautions should I take?
High footwear (hiking boots or work boots), a good-quality headlamp, a helmet if you enter buildings with unstable floors, an FFP3 mask for sites with asbestos (most Italian roofs pre-1992 contain asbestos), water and snacks, a spare battery for your phone. Never explore alone : minimum two people, with one staying outside in case of need. Notify someone of your itinerary. Never force walled or sealed doors (the wall is there for a reason). And remember the case of Tzane at Roghudi Vecchio: the railings of abandoned houses are not reliable.
Where should someone starting out in Italian urbex begin?
We recommend starting with legally visitable places: Cretto di Burri, Craco, Pentedattilo, Apice Vecchia. They are perfect terrains to become familiar with the charm of abandonment without risking legal trouble. Then, gradually, you can move closer to the "harder" urbex sites (asylums, factories, islands), accompanied by experienced urbexers. Our guide to urbex equipment (currently only in French, Italian translation coming) lists all the essential gear.
Going further
The 14 spots in this article are only the tip of the iceberg. Our database catalogues 22,765 abandoned places across the entire Italian territory, in all 20 regions, from South Tyrol to Sicily. Among seismic villages, former asylums, disused factories, deconsecrated convents, historic railways, barracks, lighthouses, islands, mountain sanatoriums, Liberty villas and land-art cretti, there is enough to explore for entire years.
To go beyond this dossier:
- ●Discover our interactive world map with the 22,765 Italian spots geolocated
- ●Read our upcoming regional deep-dives: Veneto, Tuscany, Lombardy, Lazio, Sicily, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Campania, Apulia, Basilicata
- ●Explore the thematic packs: Abandoned castles, Former asylums, Ghost villages, Modernist architectures
Italy is the country with the richest heritage of abandonment in Europe : a land of earthquakes, rural exoduses, dictatorships, wars and health reforms. Each abandoned spot is a window opened onto a specific chapter of Italian history. Exploring them : with caution, with respect, without vandalism : is one of the most powerful forms of collective memory.
Happy exploring.
Comprehensive dossiers by spot and by region
Every major Italian urbex spot deserves a dedicated deep-dive. Explore our comprehensive dossiers (5,000-7,000 words each, historical photos, FAQs, free GPS coordinates):
Lombardy
- ●🎰 Consonno: the Las Vegas of Brianza in ruins
- ●🏥 Mombello: the Antonini asylum, from Napoleon to Basaglia
- ●🩸 Villa de Vecchi: the Casa Rossa of Cortenova (Crowley legend)
- ●🗺️ Urbex Lombardy: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Liguria
- ●🏚️ Balestrino: the ghost village of Liguria and the Del Carretto castle
- ●🗺️ Urbex Liguria: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Veneto
- ●👻 Poveglia: the cursed island of Venice
- ●🗺️ Urbex Veneto: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Emilia-Romagna
- ●🏯 Rocchetta Mattei: the eclectic castle of Cesare Mattei
- ●🗺️ Urbex Emilia-Romagna: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Tuscany
- ●🏰 Sammezzano Castle: the Moorish pearl of Tuscany
- ●🏥 Volterra Asylum: the Ferri Pavilion and Nannetti
- ●⛪ Abbey of San Galgano: the Tuscan sword in the stone
- ●🏥 Ville Sbertoli: the former asylum of Pistoia by Agostino Sbertoli
- ●🗺️ Urbex Tuscany: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Apulia
- ●🌾 Monteruga: the ghost village of Salento and the fascist land reclamation
- ●🗺️ Urbex Apulia: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Campania
- ●🏘️ Apice Vecchia: the ghost village of the Sannio and the Ettore Castle
- ●🗺️ Urbex Campania: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Calabria
- ●👁️ Pentedattilo: the ghost village on the hand of stone
- ●🗻 Roghudi Vecchio: the Griko ghost village on the Aspromonte
- ●🗺️ Urbex Calabria: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Sicily
- ●🎨 Cretto di Burri: the tomb-work of Gibellina
- ●🗺️ Urbex Sicily: the complete guide to abandoned places (regional dossier coming)
Extending the exploration beyond Italy
If Italy whetted your appetite for European urbex, don't miss our dedicated pillar on the Czech Republic: a country combining pre-1989 psychiatric hospitals, abandoned Baroque castles in Northern Bohemia, the Soviet ghost town (Milovice/Boží Dar) inherited from the Red Army withdrawal in 1991, and forgotten Mattoni spas in the Ohře valley. 10 iconic places, free GPS coordinates, same formula as the Italian pillar.
👉 **Czech Republic urbex: top 10 abandoned places to explore**
