A mari supero ad inferum. The Alps were so called from the ancient writers who defined the limits of the Alpine mountains from the higher sea, the Adriatic, to the lower one, the Tyrrhenian. The long and wide Alpine valleys have been important penetration grooves that allowed the intercommunication between several populations. Populations who dominated the apparently impenetrable surrounding nature, stabilizing along the waterways until the most remote peaks. Before long, the Alps went from a demographic saturation during the Middle Ages to a rapid depopulation from the XVIII century.

In the last decades the Alpine mountain area has lived increasing emigration directed principally towards more developed urban areas and oversea countries. The abandonment of these lands has caused a loss in cultural values that have characterized the area for centuries, the growth of the phantom cities’ number and a general deterioration of the rural environment. Mountains are slowly “dying” due to government negligence, the negative image that it has spread out and the advancement of nature which makes impervious most of the areas and no more human accessible. What to do to reestablish a relationship with the mountains, making them “livable” again?

 
 
Chapter I

The uncontrolled escape

 
 

Until the XV century, the Alps were the European territory more densely populated, considered a central point for entire Europe. Thousand of several communities have lived the Alpine mountains, characterizing each territory with different specific languages, cultures, rules, traditions. Their existence was based around the capacity to establish a mutual relationship with the surrounded nature, becoming arbitrary figures of entire ecosystems.

The onset of the capitalistic economy and the rise of the mechanical work brought an economic and social derangement on these territories, considered areas with unfavourable development conditions. The depopulation phenomenon has been focused mostly in the oriental Alps, including Italians, Slovenian and Austrian alpine regions. In these lands, the rapid decrease of newborns, the direct consequence of the emigration, the inaccessibility of several areas and their regression and more generally, the diverse economic issues, have been key factors in the phenomenon’s advancement.

Sources: Zucca, M.,(2006), Le Alpi. La gente. Antropologia delle piccole comunità. Movimenti demografici. Condizione femminile. Prospettive di sviluppo. / Löffler, R., Beismann, M., Walder, J., Warmuth, W., Steinicke, E., Čede, P. & Jelen, I., (n.g.), Il nuovo problema demografico delle Alpi.
 

years

residents per km2 - 2013

10 years annual average (%) - 2017

  • 1951-1981

  • 1981-2000

  • 2000-2012

  • < 10

  • > 10-50

  • > 50-100

  • > 100-500

  • > 500

  • < -5% - > 1%

  • > 0% - 1%

  • >1% - >5%

 
Chapter II

All that remains

 
Antrona

inhabited until: 1642

abandonment cause: unknown

Aramola

inhabited until: 1980

abandonment cause: unknown

Borgo Carrero

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Borgo del Canto

inhabited until: 1970

abandonment cause: emigration

Brugosecco

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause: emigration

Ca’ de Ferrè

inhabited until: 1950

abandonment cause: depopulation

Canate di Marsiglia

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause: unknown

Case Veixe

inhabited until: 1950

abandonment cause: depopulation

Casoni di Vegn

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Chiapparo

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: depopulation

Chiout degli Uomini

inhabited until: 1976

abandonment cause: earthquake

Cja Ronc

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Coindo

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause:depopulation

Connio

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause:depopulation

Costa di Soglio

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Curon Vecchia

inhabited until: 1950

abandonment cause: dam construction

Dasile

inhabited until: 1950

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Erto

inhabited until: 1963

abandonment cause: unstable ground

Ferrazza

inhabited until: 1961

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Filettino

inhabited until: 1920

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Fontana

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause: emigration

Frassaneit di Sopra

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Frassaneit di Sotto

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Fumegai

inhabited until: 1900

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Irone

inhabited until: 1630

abandonment cause: plague

Lampore

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Moggessa di La

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Moggessa di Qua

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Monteviasco

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Mulini di Piero

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Onunchio

inhabited until:1969

abandonment cause: depopulation

Pagliari

inhabited until: XX century

abandonment cause: depopulation

Orsetti

inhabited until: 1970

abandonment cause: unknown

Palcoda

inhabited until: 1950

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Pattine di Gosaldo

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Porciorasco

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Pozzis

inhabited until: 1970

abandonment cause: unfavorable position

Riulade

inhabited until: 1976

abandonment cause: earthquake

Roccacannuccia

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Rovaiolo

inhabited until: 1960

abandonment cause: landslide

Savogno

inhabited until: 1968

abandonment cause: emigration

Serremorello

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Stracadon

inhabited until: unknown

abandonment cause: unknown

Tamar

inhabited until: 1950

abandonment cause: depopulation

The depopulation of the Alps caused the increase of the number of phantom cities, abandoned cities mostly located on inaccessible areas which once housed solid Alpine communities. Today, these cities, are a cluster of dilapidated walls where nature takes over everything that has been made by humans’ hands, erasing any trace of it. Moreover, the remaining globalized world has always denied the Alpine culture/environment/history, causing a distorted perception of the Alps, considered as “not-places” or “open museums” characterized by a “folk” way of living, where everything is specially built. But does Alpine Culture exist? The Alps are divided into several territories characterized by unique peculiarities. All the different populations have developed a specific culture in relation to the environment, with different traditions and dialects. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider the Alpine Culture also as a common culture because of its similarities which are found throughout the Alps. Moreover, this unique culture is often based on the most advantageous and respectful way of exploiting the territory by facing the difficulties that the mountain brings in the daily life of those who experience it. The Alpine Culture is a set of aspects handed down from generation to generation where time is still marked by the passage of the sun and where even the single object could assume an extreme utility, going beyond the simple use.

Sources: CAI Lombardia,(n.g.), Civiltà e Culture della Montagna - Cultura del Territorio / Pictures: www.paesifantasma.it
 
Chapter III

Alpine Archive

 

Mirella, born in 1940, Collina (UD)
When I opened my shop the houses were full of people, now they are all empty. They arrive during the summer on vacation few days seldom. Otherwise the village is dead, we can say. We went from door to door, now before to go meet someone you first have to call, ask if they are available and ring the bell, also the time and then you can enter. Instead, when I was young we came out from one door we entered another one... The game of stones!! I do not know how is called… Campana! Oh yes, outside a house (dialect) there was a cement road and then we jumped singing (dialect song). Collinetta has 20 people left and they were 300, Collina more or less the same of Collinetta. We have only mountains, we see the mountains… We mowed the hay, we went up to the mountains, we worked, worked worked worked a lot… the pannier on the shoulders. (dialect) when so? *laugh* shut up *laugh*. We mowed the hay, we raked, we made sheaves… those were days, not to be forgotten.

Annette, born in 1928, Milano
I graduated in 1947 and that time they proclaimed the first contest due to the fact that all the teachers who worked during the war had not a tenured position. I participated to this contest and by combination I won, I was the 575th. Only the most uncomfortable Carnia’s places remained, for example Buttea, because at that time we had to go always by walk. Verzegnis had a free place for Pozzis, which counted 90 inhabitants, but the school was well done. There was a classroom on the ground floor, the kitchen and the bedroom on the first floor and there was a toilet halfway up, without water. The water was taken in the Arzino, in the nearby springs where the water was very pure. We didn’t even have electricity, we all had a lamp. The water was taken by my kids from 4th/5th grade in the Arzino. The school-class it was made up of 12 children, it was a multi-classes. I remember the kids from 5th grade, passed and called me at 6 am because before to start class they had to take their sheeps out to meadows. I remember when I went during the evenings sitting in the bench and I was knitting for my little brother. I also remember this pathway that at some point it cut the curve and you could see the school, the village and my students always coming to meet me.

 
Chapter IV

The New Mountaineers

 
 

Despite every attempt to enhance "popular culture", words such as "mountain man", "country", "farmer" maintain their negative charge, their meaning of backwardness and, inability to adapt to the world that changes. Nevertheless, new mountaineers , or amenity migrants, are settling more and more on the alpine areas. People who knowingly undertake a new life in the mountains, who abandon cities located in external areas, and who therefore can contribute to the revitalization and the maintenance of peripheral mountain settlements, generating a population exchange between those who leave the lands and those who settle. The newcomers bring renovation and counteract the aged population and the drop of births, strengthening the cultural and social structures of the mountain community. Below you can find some cultural and social projects that have somehow given visibility to the forgotten Alps and / or contrasted the lack of credibility by creating new opportunities.