Balestrino: The Ligurian Medieval Borgo That a Landslide Emptied in a Single Night

Balestrino is a small municipality in the hinterland of Loano, on the Riviera di Ponente in Liguria. The medieval historic centre, dominated by the castle of the Del Carretto marquises — built in its original core in the mid-sixteenth century — was subjected to geological surveys in 1939 after the first localised collapses: the hill on which the village stands is made of karst rock riddled with hidden cavities. Inhabitants were progressively evacuated from 1953, with compensation to build new homes in the lower part of the village, but the evacuation was not completed until 1969.

Since then the historic centre has remained intact but inaccessible. You can look in from outside, through the iron railings, and what you see is an entire town, perfectly preserved: houses with their roofs, cobbled streets, the castle with its battlemented walls, the church with its bell tower. All empty, all still. Today it can only be visited on special occasions — such as FAI Open Days — accompanied by guides and wearing protective helmets, moving under secured passages.

The impossibility of entering freely makes Balestrino even more fascinating. Unlike Craco or Pentedattilo, where you walk among the ruins, here you can only look in from the outside — and imagine. The Del Carretto castle dominates the scene: a massive construction with a square tower (the Maschio, which originally served as a watchtower) and battered walls over ten metres high, that seems to be waiting for the return of its lords.

The walk around the borgo is evocative all the same: you climb from the lower part of the village through olive groves and vegetable gardens, arrive at the gates of the historic centre and circle the walls, looking inside through the openings. The landscape is that of the Ligurian hinterland: hills covered in olive trees, hilltop borghi, the sea glimpsed in the distance.

In recent years the municipality has launched a project to restore the historic centre, but work is progressing slowly. The aim is to reopen the borgo to the public, though no one knows when. In the meantime Balestrino remains the largest abandoned village in Liguria: a perfectly preserved ghost town because no one has entered it for decades.

It can be visited in a couple of hours, combined with a visit to Toirano (famous for its prehistoric caves, just 3 km away) and the coast at Loano. The best time is spring and autumn.