An imaginary interview with an inhabitant of Craco.

Question – Are you still missing?
Answer – I would not know what it’s the answer. since that day in 1974 we live in limbo, destiny has forced us to separate, in the memory of those who remember the scenes of everyday life are indelible traits in the memory the people born in Craco can not forget.

Question – What do you remember about Craco?
Answer – I was a child, I remember the holidays in the village, I remember a Christmas period , it was the happiest and most experienced. Craco was called “the country of wheat”. Think ! we were 2000 inhabitants but could not cultivate it and collect it. The wheat grew luxuriant and flourishing. Many workers came from nearby Salento, some settled and married in Craco. The village was a small jewel. We had the train station, do you know what’s the situation of Italian railways in the south? We had the station !! But not only that. I remember the hospital and the cinema. Dad took me to see Totò’s movies , then there was the aqueduct that helped us in the hot summer and much more

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Question – Do you remember what happened?
Answer – Of course, I was a child but it’s all printed in my mind. Everything started in 1963 when a landslide started to endanger homes. We all thought it was an impromptu and localized phenomenon “now we stop it”. The simplicity of those who did not know , now we know we lost it forever. An American engineer was hired to find a solution. The crack was more than 20 meters long, the stranger suggested to create terraces to create a brake, but the Italian technicians did not agree.

Question – What solution did they adopt?
Answer – There is a sentence of my father , it’s laways around in my head in these years “Those are good, you’ll see, they will solve the problem”. They built not one but two retaining walls. After 5 days from the completion of the works the walls began to yield. 5 days?! Do you understand?

Question – – Then in 1974 … ..
Answer – Yeah, 1974. Slowly we had to leave the houses, the situation became too dangerous, the land danced beneath our feet. The politicians of the time assigned us public housing in Peschiera, a country that is 20 km away.

Question – How did you feel?
Answer – I did not consider Peschiera like my home, it was not part of our territory. Did you visit him? It is anonymous, it does not speak with the heart, there are little more than 650 people, a third of Craco! Of course, we must thank those who gave us a home to live. Do you know that the people still owns a home in Craco do not pay taxes on their homes? It certainly was not easy. Misunderstandings, anger I carried in my body, anxiety and fright when I feel the ground shake ….

Question – What do it remain of Craco?
Answer – Let’s see, certainly the words “Pane e Lavoro” ( bread and work). The peasants claimed the land, they wantet dignity in work ….food to feed the family, a faded memory of an age before the golden age.
What remains? The charm of a village that remained in the 60s / 70s, a historic center of ancient beauty. Precisely this charm made it perfect as a movie set. Francesco Rosi was the first director to choose Craco as a location. Then Mel Gibson arrived and filmed for The Passion, did not you know? Then Rocco Papaleo filmed some scenes from his film “Basilicata coast to Coast, the film has had an incredible success.
Thanks to its charm, Craco has been redeveloped and enhanced. We have exceeded 16,000 annual visits!
The village has returned to new life. Those attention of the first weekend reserved only for us former citizens now are tourists. Visitors come, go around the country, make it known to the world. Craco is no longer a ghost town!

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Question – And how did you feel?
Answer – I did not consider Peschiera my home, it was not part of our territory. Did you visit him? It is anonymous, does not speak with the heart, there are little more than 650 people, a third of Craco! Of course, we must thank those who gave us a home to live. Do you know that those who still own a home in Craco do not pay taxes on their homes? It certainly was not easy. Misunderstandings, anger I carried in my body, anxiety and fright when I feel the ground shake ….

Question – What can see in Craco?
Answer – Let’s see, certainly the words “Pane e Lavoro. The peasants claimed the land to have dignity in work and food to feed the family, a faded memory of an age before the golden age.
What remains? The charm of a village that remained in the 60s / 70s, a historic center of ancient beauty. Precisely this charm made it perfect as a film set. Francesco Rosi was the first director to choose Craco as a location. Then Mel Gibson arrived and filmed for The Passion of the Christ, did not you know? Then Rocco Papaleo filmed some scenes from his film “Basilicata coast to Coast”, the film has had an incredible success.
Thanks to its charm, Craco has been redeveloped and enhanced. We have exceeded 16,000 annual visits!
The village has returned to new life. Those attention of the first weekend reserved only for us former citizens now belong to the tourists. Visitors come, go around the country, make it known to the world. Craco is no longer a ghost town! Craco is still alive.

Question – If I would visit the Ghost Town what can you suggest us’
Answer –  if you would visit Cracco you need a touristic card and you can order here. From a gastronomic point of view, Basilicata suffers a lot from the influence of neighboring regions. Its cuisine is poor and is based on the products of the earth, meats and dairy products derived from sheep and pig farms. The most important product is the sausage or lucanica, made from the pig of the region
I also recommend lamb and mutton, delicious typical dish the «pigneti»: pieces of meat, potatoes, tomato, onion, chilli, pecorino cheese and crumbled salami, which are placed in a terracotta amphora, then closed with clay and passed in a very hot oven.
Another treasure is the bread made with durum wheat semolina, the basic element of most of the first courses.
The most used sauce is the ragù with the «’ntruppicc» (hitches), that is pieces of pork or sheep.
The excellence of the cuisine of this region is the dried pepper, which is enhanced in the “spicy sauce”, a typical condiment preserved in glass jars, obtained with pepper powder, fennel, salt and pork fat.

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