The transformation: from the Camorra to the community

A confiscated asset is a victory only on paper. If you leave it in ruins, if it becomes yet another abandoned building, the message you send is simple: the bosses may end up in prison, but their power remains intact.

In 2011, a turning point. The Zara villa is entrusted to Agrorinasce, the consortium that manages assets confiscated from the Camorra to return them to the community. It is a crucial moment: that place must change its identity; it must become something opposite to what it has been.

The idea is clear: to create a center for young people, a youth hostel that becomes a place of meeting and training. An ambitious and complex project, funded with resources allocated by the Ministry of the Interior through the PON Security for the Development of Southern Italy.

But who can manage such a symbolic place? Who can ensure that this transformation does not remain just an idea on paper? The public tender is won by Giosef Italy – Giovani Senza Frontiere (Young People Without Borders), a social promotion association active throughout Italy since 1998. A young organization capable of bringing people from all over Europe to Casapesenna to give that place a new identity.

The renovation work lasts for years. Every wall is torn down and rebuilt; every trace of the past is erased to make way for a different future. In 2015, the transformation is complete. The Zara villa becomes Il Paguro – Euromediterranean Youth Center.

A name chosen not by chance. The paguro (hermit crab) is an animal that changes its home to continue living. Like this structure. Like those who will pass through it.