There are places that appear wanderers of time. Wrapped in silence, by a landscape equal to itself. Firm and helpless like something old that has lost its memory. But they are there and with their presence they "ask" to be told. So let's try to lend our words to the story of Morfia. A small ghost town in the province of Messina.
Morfia: a large family
The history of Morfia begins in 1950. Birthplace is Francavilla di Sicilia in the province of Messina. Here, by the will of the Agency for Land Reform, the Schisina villages rise. A large family, made up of seven villages. San Giovanni, Bucceri-Monastero, Pietra Pizzuta, Malfìtana, Piano Torre, Schisina and Morfia. But what characterizes their singular story? Certainly it must be said that the origin of the villages is due to a good intention. The one that saw the protagonist the expropriation of land previously belonging to the landowners. Plots then divided by lot among the "lucky" farmers who could one day redeem the land.
So here is that to provide farmers with all the "comforts" of the case it was decided to build houses but also a church, a school and everything that could be understood as a service. The works led to the construction of ben 164 houses distributed among the seven villages. In fact, even today arriving in Morfia it is possible to see all this. After walking along a country road for about 500 meters, there is a small square to welcome us onto which the church overlooks. A little further on the houses, the school and the lodge of the teacher. A succession of rural-looking buildings scattered along a road that cuts through the fields describing a sinuous "S". Yet this village, like the others, it was deserted from the start. What motivates this mystery?
A strange story
When it was time to allocate land, many farmers preferred to give it up. Maybe i farmers did they kick the luck that had "kissed" them? No, rather they opted for a more than sensible choice. In fact, the fields were not so easily cultivable whereas until then they had been used for grazing. In addition, what were supposed to be comforts, or houses, soon proved to be a failure. The houses were very cramped, consisting of a couple of rooms and therefore not very suitable for hosting the numerous peasant families. Plus they totally lacked services. Non-existent electricity and water as well as structural defects which involved a number of problems. Flooding in case of rain but also freezing in winter and overheating in summer.
Unfortunately, the buildings were built on the model of a flat roof house but the place where the villages were located should not be forgotten.. Located in mountainous territory, these small agglomerations were more exposed to climatic variations. It is therefore not surprising that we immediately spoke of ghost villages. Today here reigns the time that passes slowly, marked only by the sounds of nature. The wind, the rain, the chirping of some birds. However, there remain the traces of a path whose fate was not what we hoped for but which still leaves us a clear representation of the history of the past.
