But Roscigno is not a ghost town; its paths are walked daily by farmers for work in the fields, and the houses in better condition have been transformed into tool sheds and stables for animals; the square is still a meeting and gathering point for many of the old inhabitants, and one can feel in the air the bond that people have with their ancient village.
All of this is of great charm and extreme interest to the visitor: the traumatic history, the forced relocations, the functional transformations of houses, the traditional systems of life and work are reflected in the particular urban structure, in the portals, windows, iron balconies, wooden floors, and stone masonry.
Old Roscigno has therefore become a spontaneous museum that collects various layers of historical documentation; it is not a place where objects are simply preserved or a museum of artworks or natural history: it is a “museum-city,” a space not enclosed within four walls but outdoors, where the perimeter boundaries are given only by the surrounding countryside; a museum constantly visitable, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, a place of reflection where one breathes an atmosphere connected to the biological rhythms of nature. For the scholar, Roscigno is a “global document” of social history, but above all it is an exceptional open-air cultural research laboratory.
