For 26 years, it's been a ghost on Via Montello in Sassari. A four-story building, from numbers 19 to 29 and on the corner of Via Flumenargia, was evacuated way back in 1999. This measure was made irrevocable by water infiltrations that were affecting the foundations, forcing the building to be vacated after an initial evacuation in the 1980s.
All the families who lived there were then evacuated, some of whom were still paying off the mortgage on a house they could no longer occupy. Over time, homeless people and drug addicts moved into the building, who were immediately evicted. Road resurfacing work was halted in 2022 due to a collapse of the sidewalk, which had raised fears of the worst.
Since then, the only recorded movements have been those of the cyclical mowing of the grass and weeds that grow in front of the entrance and along the perimeter of the "building", cordoned off by the Municipality.
"In fact," reports a resident of the nearby streets, "there are also dozens of rats coming out of there."
A monument to decay, located just a few dozen meters from the police headquarters and the park, it stands in stark contrast. This presence also devalues the area's homes, while also eliminating many of the businesses that once existed—bars, butchers, hairdressers, and dry cleaners—currently housing only a grocery store and a paint shop. But no solutions are in sight, and the "ghost" remains uninhabitable.
