Known as "the city of Utopia", Campomaggiore was built by Count Teodoro Rendina in 1741 in a tiny piece of Lucanian territory, implementing the ideas of European utopian socialists such as Henri de Saint Simon, Charles Fourier and Robert Owen. The enlightened vision of the count favored the establishment of a balanced society, founded on the cooperative ideal repopulating the small village assigned to his family by King Philip IV in 1673.
Having sensed its agricultural potential, in fact, the count decided to transform it into the City of Utopia, with the help of Giovanni Patturelli, an architect, pupil of Vanvitelli, who built the houses according to innovative urban criteria with wide and orthogonal streets and checkered houses. This project provided very precise rules so that everything could work in the best way. Every farmer had the right to a house of twenty palms (about 25 meters), a small piece of land (8000 m²) as well as enough wood to keep warm, taking into account that, for each plant felled, it was necessary to plant three fruit trees. In such way stables and pigsties were organized, the cultivation of vines and olive trees spread, and a botanical garden was started with plants that the count had known and brought from his journeys such as maritime pines and even a specimen of sequoia. Campomaggiore, became an avant-garde village passing from 80 to 1525 inhabitants, a result of a fruitful mix of people from Puglia, Campania and local peoples.
Unfortunately, on February 10, 1885, the dream of the city of utopia was abruptly broken. A slow, inexorable landslide movement forced the population to abandon their homes to seek refuge elsewhere. No casualties occurred but the village was reduced to a pile of rubble. Life plans, hopes of progress, the enchantment of a magical place were interrupted. Maybe. Or maybe not.
Perhaps utopia is inherent to dream, it is something that walks on the legs of the pure, of visionaries, it is a kite on a flyby over a wheat field: the sweet and bitter story of Campomaggiore Vecchio, a fairy tale for dreamers.
