Hippie Artists Village

Bussana Vecchia 

is a 100 year old

ghost town  

in Liguria, a few kilometers from the Italian-French border.

23 February 1887 a lot of people died in the Earthquake in the village.

Most buildings were severely damaged and the authorities decided to rebuild the village in a new site downhill called Bussana Nuova. 

The old village was abandoned and all of its buildings declared dangerous.

Rebirth

In the early 1960s a group of artists, 

the Community of International Artists 

(now International Artists Village),

 decided to move to Bussana Vecchia. The spirit of the organization was somewhat idealistic: to be able to live simply and to work artistically within the village.

The new community of inhabitants grew from the small original nucleus to around twenty to thirty people by 1968, mostly hippie artists coming from all over Europe 

(Italian, Austrian, English, French, Danish, German and Swedish).

Today

The International Artists Village

  is still living there, selling its handiwork to tourists, and organizing artistic events.