BUSSANA VECCHIA - The Detailed History

Major damage done to Bussana Vecchia by the authorities proving estimate of 1887, that the buildings would not remain standing, was incorrect. Most of the abandoned houses were intact until 1958-59 : roofs, supporting arches and staircases, destroyed with pneumatic drills. An unsuccesfull attempt to blow up the church tower, to render the Bussana Vecchia unihabitable after an attempted settlement by migrant workers from the south of Italy, who were rehoused by the San Remo Council.

This renders the 1996, Ruling of the San Remo Court absurd, as it stipulates the present inhabitants should compensate the State, which has been unable to furnish documentary evidence of ownership, for lost income due to their occupation. That they should recieve no compensation for work and monies spent making good the damage done by the earthquake of 1887 and by the authorities in the 50' s. The houses must be put back into the same condition as they were prior to being occupied : destroyed.

Its refusal to recognize the basic rights of its long term inhabitants. Italian, Austrian, English, French, Danish, German and Swedish have throughout the past forty years, by their own self financed efforts and with no outside help, reclaimed this ruined village, abandoned for 80 years and vandalised by the authorities in the 50' s,. making a functioning community and the valuable asset the Italian State is now, by a series of political manoevres and legal procedures, seeking to acquire, depriving the present inhabitants of their place of work, their homes they have made and a way of life upon which their livilihood depends.

IN THE LATE 50' S

MAJOR DAMAGE DONE TO BUSSANA VECCHIA BY THE AUTHORITIES

1960 -2000

Some clearage of debrise from road ways, cementing of same. Provision of wrought iron brackets for torches and metal containers, to hold diesle to provide street lighting and a suggestive atmosphere during festival concerts of opera and classical music in the large church, financed by the San Remo Council. Provision of rubbish removal, electricity, telephone lines, water and school bus.

Long term inhabitants refused permission by Tribunal in Genova to make a case against Italian State for title, because the court ruled the State was not the owner. Title had to be acquired via descendants of original inhabitants, prior to 1887.

ARTISTS ENCOURAGED BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO TAKE AND RESTRUCTURE HOUSES IN BUSSANA VECCHIA.

WORK DONE IN THE VILLAGE BY THE SAN REMO COUNCIL

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Printed in official Italian State Gazette ( 18 Gennaio 1997 Foglio N.5 ) " Con provvedimento 30.12.96, il Presidente del Tribunale di Genova ha autorizzato i signori Colin Sidney-Wilmot, E.P. Moor, D.O.Pfarr, F.R.Shaw, alla notifica per pubblici proclami ai sensi dell' Art. 150 c.p.c. agli abitanti del Comune di San Remo, quali eredi o aventi cause degli abitanti già domiciliati nell' ex Comune di Bussana della giudiziale domanda avente ad oggetto accertamento e declamatoria di proprietà per usucapione di immobili siti in Comune di San Remo, frazione Bussana Vecchia.

The State could with no difficulty allow the due process of its own laws, wich would enable us to reap the benefits of the work we have executed and financed and it could learn from our experiment, wich irrefutably demonstrates, that long abandoned and unwanted ruines, of which there are many, all over Italy, can be recovered and transformed into desireable dwellings and viable communities.

What are their motives? What is their definition of the State and its role? The fourty years of unrelenting labour have transformed Bussana Vecchia from an unwanted, abandoned ruin, that in 1970-1972 the State valued at some 20.000.000 Lira ( for the entire village ), into extremely valuable, real estate, a mile from the sea and with probably the best access to the highway any where in the province, close to the yachting marinas at Porto Sole and Santo Stefano.

It is an absurdity in the post war Italian State within the European Free Trade Community, that there are sections of, or single, bureaucrats who continue to ignore the spirit of the 1947 Italian Constitution and apply laws that came into effect under totalitarian regime, to deny those it is now their function to serve, access to one of the only three legal processes by which property can be acquired in Italy.

ILLIGAL SERVING OF NOTICES TO QUIT ON A NON DEFINITE COURT RULING PENDING APPEAL

It should not be forgotten that the State has no documentary evidence and the Genoese Courts have denied their claim to houses in Bussana Vecchia and would not allow those in possesion of houses to group together, insisting the case for each house, would have to be heard separately.

The court in San Remo appropriated to itself authority to deal with 18 cases as one and handed down a blanket ruling that included those who had already been granted the Genoese Court' s permission to apply for title of the property in their possession. An appeal was set to be heard in Genova on 18th November 1999 before a college of judges. A short while after the proceedings began, due to the lack of a document ( not one the defence was required to produce ) it was put forward. The appeal is now to be heard on the 5th May 2000.

The move to put Bussana Vecchia into hands of the Belle Arti as being unique in Liguria is unjustified. Here are many ruines and villages built of the same materials, in similar stiles, at similar epochs. Some ruines have been restructured commercially, Conio at Pompeiana, for example. Such a move would however provide the Italian State with a means of blocking the inhabitants who have been there long enough, from obtaining title and give an appearance of respectability.

The state maintains that it is faced with an administrative problem it is obliged to resolve and has no intention of depriving the inhabitants of their houses. The tactics they are using make this assertion almost impossible to believe, when its representatives in court declare the State' s intention to obtain title, evict, seek damages and its obscene proposals of valuing the renovated houses at their current market value and selling or renting them back to those who have been in possession, for decades and have already spent, what it would cost to buy a house somewhere else, to make them habitable.