About
By a landslide threat, an abandoned village is frozen in time.
Rovaiolo Vecchio is an ancient village in the mountains in the province of Pavia, halfway between Milan and the sea. Or at least it was before the construction of highways and railways. One day in 1960, local officials ordered the immediate evacuation of the whole village: The mountain was sliding down onto it. Within a few hours, all the inhabitants were packing up their belongings and leaving their homes for temporary housing. The landslide never happened, but in a short time, the village was rebuilt on the other side of the river. Here’s where the irony comes in. The new village was destroyed by a landslide, and the old one left untouched!
