AUSTRALIA is facing a housing crisis but a picturesque Italian town dating its history back to the Middle Ages has the opposite problem, it needs more residents and is offering people 30,000 euros to move there. The scheme is Presicce is the latest offered in the country by a town struggling with dwindling populations and empty homes, following the likes of Mussomeli which offered abandoned dwellings to foreigners for one euro. Pressice is located in the region of Puglia, in the heel of Italy’s boot, and has seen an increasing number of homes become empty.
Town officials are hoping the monetary offer – as well as its location amongst the nature of the Salento area and only 15 minutes drive from the powder beaches and clear waters of Santa Maria di Leuca – can attract a new cohort of residents. Local councillor Alfredo Palese told CNN the funding in the offer will be split in two – partly into buying an old home and partly into restyling it if needed. Applications are set to launch in the coming weeks on the town hall website.
Pressice merged with the adjacent community of Acquarica in 2019 to create a larger town of 9,000 residents, and as a result the territory now has roughly one million euros more per year for several years in public funds that it intends to invest into revitalising the old district. Prospective buyers must take up residency in Presicce and purchase one of a selection of properties that were built before 1991 to qualify for the incentive, capped at 30,000 euros. House prices start at 500 euros per sqm. Settlements in Presicce emerged in the middle ages around a Saracen fortress built by monks, who dug crypts and underground olive mills for pirate raid survivors.
Its olive groves yielded premium extra virgin olive oil and the town became a prosperous fiefdom during the Renaissance, with a reputation for fine wine, cheese, and its cattle trade. A network of 23 secret chambers and olive mills were used by farmers known as trappettari to press olives in stone mills pushed by donkeys. In the ancient district, wide streets and winding narrow alleys intersect. The town features decorated gold-coloured buildings with wrought-iron balconies and inner courtyards, as well as simpler white dwellings.
White-reddish rock frescoed palazzos, chapels and votive columns built by the rich rural bourgeoisie remain. Today, Presicce’s culinary culture is underpinned by fried fish delicacies linked to the cult of Saint Andrew, as well as handmade pastas, orecchiette and strascinate, pittule leavened pasta pancakes stuffed with shrimps, cod, vegetables, or made alla pizzaiola, with olives, capers and cherry tomatoes.