Swiss village’s plan to avoid extinction? Become a hotel

The Italian-speaking Swiss village of Corippo has a population of 12 - Federica Grassi
The Italian-speaking Swiss village of Corippo has a population of 12 - Federica Grassi

Scattered across the scenic Verzasca Valley, the Swiss village of Corippo is slowly turning into a ghost town. Home to 300 people during its 19th-century peak, the population has dwindled to just 12 inhabitants with a reported average age of 75.

These dire statistics have prompted fears that the village is shuffling towards extinction, fears shared by rural communities across Europe, which are being abandoned by young people due to a lack of opportunities and a preference for city life.

But a novel solution to Corippo’s terminal decline has been proposed: turn the village into a hotel. The idea is not a new one, originating as it did in Italy, where the “albergo diffuso” (scattered hotel) model has been used to revive ailing hamlets.

A local organisation, the Fondazione Corippo 1975, decided to bring the idea to the Verzasca Valley and the first cottage – the two-bedroom Casa Arcotti – opened over the summer.

Some 30 of the village’s 70 buildings are slated for conversion into holiday lets as part of a regeneration plan that will see the village’s last remaining restaurant turned into the hotel dining room and reception.

Fabio Giacomazzi, an architect and president of the foundation, told CNN that the hotel would give tourists the chance “to experience a very particular sojourn in a genuine rural village that remained practically the same since 1800.”

Critics wonder whether Corippo's creaking infrastructure can cope with tourists - Credit: ISTOCK
Critics wonder whether Corippo's creaking infrastructure can cope with a tourist boom Credit: ISTOCK

The property, he added, could also help increase the population of the village: "We hope that the hotel will offer the opportunity for a young family to undertake the management and to settle in Corippo together with some employees."

Not everyone is happy, however. Locals have told reporters that rather than trying to attract tourists more effort should be made to fix the poor water supply and other problems. There are also concerns that the village’s creaking infrastructure, built for horse and cart, will not cope with an influx of travellers.

The project, which Telegraph Travel understands is not yet fully funded, has nonetheless won the Swiss Hotel Association’s 2017 Innovation Award. Finance depending, work is set to be completed in 2020.

Three Italian ghost villages that became hotels

Castello di Gargonza, Italy

“It’s hard to imagine accommodation with a richer history,” says Oliver Smith, Telegraph Travel’s Digital Travel Editor. “Castello di Gargonza (Castle of Gargonza), in the Tuscan town of Monte San Savino, served as a defensive outpost from the 12th century, and was reputedly visited by an exiled Dante Alighieri, but slowly lost its role as a medieval fort, becoming instead a rural hamlet occupied by a community of farmers. Post-war migration saw it all but abandoned, and left to ruin, but in the 1970s Roberto Guicciardini Corsi Salviati, the landowner, sought to turn around Gargonza’s fortunes, and began restoring it to its former glory – but as a historic hotel. It is now run by Guicciardini’s son, Neri.

Castello di Gargonza
Castello di Gargonza

“Staying in the circular hamlet is like stepping back in time. The 13 medieval buildings, which cluster around a central courtyard, complete with well, retain heaps of character. Among them is a church (which still hosts weekly services) and an olive press (now a sitting room), while the crowning glory is a crenellated tower.”

Corte della Maestà, Italy

This cosy retreat sits in the beautiful hilltop town of Civita di Bagnoregio, which has seen a revival following its initial abandonment. Tourists now flock there and are willing to pay €3 (or €5 on Sundays or public holidays) to enter the crumbling settlement. As many as 850,000 were expected to visit last year.

Civita di Bagnoregio - Credit: getty
Civita di Bagnoregio Credit: getty

“This semi-abandoned village perched on a precarious rockstack is just an hour’s drive north of Rome but it looks, from afar, like something out of Tolkien’s Middle Earth,” says Telegraph Travel’s Italy expert, Lee Marshall. “Once inside it’s all cute, flower-decked lanes and sudden vistas over a classic slice of Italian countryside.” 

The hotel features five suites with plenty of vintage flair that pays homage to the town’s history, including a four-poster bed that once belonged to an abbess of a monastery.

Castello di Postignano, Italy

“Postignano is less of a hotel and more of an entire village,” explains Hannah Frances, writing for Telegraph Travel. “It’s an albergo diffuso – a hospitality trend adopted by many dwindling communities across Italy to revive abandoned towns – with 60 apartments, an acclaimed restaurant and an atmospheric bar occupying its immaculate, labyrinthine streets.

“It is located in the heart of Umbria’s mountainous Valnerina: one of the wildest and most beautiful parts of the region between the Sibillini Mountains and Terni. Accessed on mountain roads from either Spoleto to the south-wetst or Foligno to the north-west, the drive through this vast, largely uninhabited landscape is spectacular.”