Civitacampomarano: The Medieval Village Painted by Street Art

Civitacampomarano has 380 inhabitants and a thirteenth-century Angevin castle. So far, the story of a thousand Italian villages emptying out. But since 2016 something has been changing: every summer the artist Alice Pasquini brings painters and muralists of international renown to these lanes, and the peeling walls of the houses become canvases. Ten editions, over fifty artists involved, more than ninety permanent works: Civitacampomarano is today one of the few places in Italy where street art is not decoration but necessity.

The festival that fights depopulation

The CVTà Street Fest — the name is the medieval transcription of "Cività" — was born as a direct response to the village's demographic decline. Alice Pasquini's insight is that art can be a more powerful attractor than any conventional tourism strategy: not an entertainment festival, but a continuous process of relationship between artists, community, and territory. Every work is site-specific, conceived for the particular wall and lane where it stands, often in dialogue with the residents who live in that corner every day.

The works and the permanent gallery

The works cover entire facades, staircases, arches, doorways — some delicate, almost melancholic; others dense with colour and political symbolism. In 2026, with PNRR funds, the No Panic Gallery was inaugurated, a permanent space for artistic residencies and educational projects, open year-round. The castle — restored and open to visitors — dominates the village from a limestone cliff and hosts temporary exhibitions during the festival.

When to go and how to get around

The festival takes place every year in late June: two days of openings, performances, and music that bring thousands of visitors to a village that for the rest of the year lives in near-absolute quiet. But the works remain and can be seen in any season: autumn is particularly evocative, with the raking light that brings out the colours of the murals. Civitacampomarano is in the province of Campobasso, about 60 kilometres from the regional capital.