Castel del Giudice, a small town in the Molise Apennines in the province of Isernia, is looking for new inhabitants and tries to do so with a different formula compared to traditional tenders that focus on low-cost homes, economic contributions or incentives for those who decide to move to small towns. In fact, the country opens its doors to families, professionals, remote workers, artisans and entrepreneurs interested in changing their lives, offering them the opportunity to apply for a trial visit and get to know the area directly before making a final decision.
The initiative is part of the “Riabitare Castel del Giudice” project and starts from a very simple idea: moving to a small village does not just mean finding a house, but understanding whether concrete conditions exist for working, accessing services, building relationships and imagining a new life project in the long term.
Castel del Giudice is looking for families, professionals and remote workers
The project is aimed at people with different profiles and does not foresee a single category of new residents. The invitation is addressed to families who are considering leaving big cities, to professionals who can work remotely, to artisans, to entrepreneurs and more generally to those with skills or ideas that could find space within the local community.
The declared objective is not simply to increase the number of visitors nor to create a new tourism initiative, but to identify people who are truly interested in evaluating a stable transfer, enabling them to get to know the country before making a choice that inevitably affects work, family and the organization of daily life.
Anyone who expresses interest is therefore considered a possible new citizen and not a passing tourist, with the idea that the arrival of new people can bring professional skills, new economic activities, relationships and projects to the area capable of strengthening a community which, like many other small Italian towns, has to deal with the progressive decline of the population.
Before the transfer you can make a trial visit to the country
The most particular element of the initiative concerns the possibility of getting to know Castel del Giudice before deciding whether to move. Anyone interested can submit their application and express their willingness to carry out a test visit, during which it will be possible to see the village directly, meet the community and learn more about the opportunities available on the housing, professional and entrepreneurial fronts.
The logic is to prevent an important decision such as relocation from being made solely on the basis of photographs, adverts or online stories, instead allowing people to concretely verify what daily life could be like in a small town in the Apennines.
The visit therefore becomes a first phase of mutual understanding, useful both for those who are thinking of changing cities and for the local community, who can come into contact with people interested not only in finding a home but also in participating in the economic and social life of the area.
How to apply to get to know Castel del Giudice
The application can be submitted online through the Territorial Regeneration portal. Once you have entered the site you need to access the “Where to live” section, select Castel del Giudice and fill out the form dedicated to the expression of interest.
It is therefore not a question to automatically obtain a house or a financial contribution, but a first step to enter into the process of getting to know the area and evaluate the possibility of a future residence.
In fact, the project aims to build a gradual process, in which the interested person can first get to know the country, understand which opportunities are actually available and only at a later stage decide whether the conditions exist to move permanently.
The country is focusing on housing, work and services to combat depopulation
Castel del Giudice has been working on territorial regeneration projects for over twenty years and one of the best known examples is Borgo Tufi, born from the recovery of an ancient abandoned rural nucleus and transformed into a widespread structure linked to hospitality.
With “Riabitare Castel del Giudice”, however, the project changes perspective and moves from the recovery of buildings to the construction of conditions that can make a new residential environment possible, starting from the awareness that the availability of properties, alone, is not enough to convince a family or a worker to move to an internal area.
The program identifies three main areas of intervention. The first concerns demography and the accompaniment of people interested in becoming new inhabitants, the second concerns work and the development of opportunities for professionals, remote workers and new entrepreneurs, while the third is dedicated to the essential services for living permanently in a small town, from mobility to assistance up to the needs of daily life.
The problem faced by the Molise municipality is common to many Italian villages, especially in inland and mountain areas, where the decrease in population over time leads to the reduction of services, the closure of businesses and a progressive loss of economic opportunities.
The idea behind the project is that depopulation cannot be combated only by recovering empty houses or offering one-off incentives, because those who decide to move must be able to find a system in which housing, work, services and relationships work together and make it realistically possible to stay in the area in the long term.
For this reason, Castel del Giudice presents itself as a sort of laboratory, in which historical residents and new inhabitants can contribute together to the construction of a community model capable of attracting people without transforming the town into a simple tourist destination.
Where is Castel del Giudice located
Castel del Giudice is located in Molise, in the province of Isernia, in an Apennine area close to the border with Abruzzo. The municipality is located in a mountain area and in recent decades it has focused on various interventions to recover the building heritage, enhance local production and develop new activities linked to tourism and the local economy.
However, the new phase of the project focuses above all on stable residence and the arrival of people interested in living in the village, working remotely or developing new activities, trying to transform the growing interest in small municipalities into a concrete and sustainable choice.
How to submit your application
Anyone who wants to get to know Castel del Giudice and evaluate the possibility of moving must access the Territorial Regeneration website, enter the “Where to live” section, choose Castel del Giudice and fill out the form to express their interest in the test visit.
Naturally, the initiative does not oblige people to move and the application represents only the beginning of a journey of knowledge, designed specifically to allow people to understand if the country, the opportunities available and the type of community can be compatible with their personal and professional project.
