A couple who fell in love with a holiday destination after a skiing trip 20 years have now spent nearly two decades renovating a medieval palazzo in Italy to restore a historic village to its former glory – after it was devastated by an earthquake.

Andrew Miles and Katja von Schweitzer first fell in love with the southern region of Abruzzo in 2005, after going on holiday there.

In 2008, the pair and their two children decided to permanently relocate from Brighton, setting their sights specifically on the quaint village of San Benedetto in Perillis – after viewing some 100 houses.

But just one year after they decided to take the plunge and invest in a stunning 15th century palazzo – which also included an eighth century fortified building and a watch tower – natural disaster struck.

The duo, who moved over to the European nation in 2018, have spoken of their 17-year journey to rennovate the ancient site on Channel 4‘s Help! We Bought a Village, and shared their enthusiasm for the project, despite it having taken them ages, and having sunk costs.

Speaking to Abruzzussimo Magazine about the damage, Andrew recalled how the 1,000 square metre property was affected.

The earthquake was rated a 5.8 on the Richter scale with its epicentre near L’Aquila, Abruzzo’s capital, which saw some 308 people dead.

He explained that the watch tower collapsed, and while the rest of the building was not largely affected the house was ‘put into the red zone’.

‘Time stopped in its tracks,’ the former photographer added. ‘Now we owned a house that we couldn’t live in and the money we might get from the Italian government would barely fix the watch tower.’

Eventually, the couple declared their house ‘a historically important property’. After this, the outlet reports, ‘the exterior construction was taken entirely out of their hands and they had neither a key nor a say in the work for more than a year’.

During Friday’s episode, the pair however were optimistic as they gave behind-the-scenes insights in their works – and revealed the grand opening of apartment rentals in a nearby town, in a move that they hope will generate cash for further refurbishments.

As of June, 18 months had passed since they finally got permission to start doing proper works on the palatial building.

‘In the future, down the line, I’m sure I’m going to look at it and go OK, it was worth all those headaches because it was an honour to be owners and custodians of this important village here,’ Katja said.

Agreeing, Andrew added: ‘Seeing life come back into this village has given me and Katja renewed energy and enthusiasm for the project – seeing how it could be to live here.’

The programme, which saw the duo grapple with the ins and outs of getting a wardrobe delivery up a ramp ahead of a bespoke staircase’s arrival also took a trip one hour away from the village, into Sulmona.

There, the couple run ‘The Poets’ Retreat’ – holiday flats nestled in a palazzo that dates back to the 16th century.

During the episode, the first sets of guests were arriving, giving the couple hope for future easing on financial strains.

As part of their work in the local tourism industry, Andrew and Katja also revealed how they have started doing ‘genealogy’ tours for people hoping to explore their ancestral roots in the area.

‘This is what we set out to do,’ Katja shared. ‘And it seems to be starting to work.’

‘It is an interesting day,’ Andrew added. ‘Because this the first group of Americans who have come to rediscover their history in our village.’

Branding it a ‘fantastic opportunity’, he also felt that it will ‘bring in some badly needed income’.

The couple also showed the progress on their own apartment in San Benedetto – which has 50 rooms – meaning they can finally start the process of moving in.

It currently has no kitchen or staircase, but the plumbing and wiring in now in place so they can slowly begin the process of starting to settle in; having had most of their belongings in storage for seven years.

‘I can see us in here, we’ve got it all mapped out,’ Katja gushed. ‘We’ve done all the measurements, bed, beautiful views, a little living area here as well – it’ll be amazing.

‘In 2018, we didn’t know it would take this long… but look at us now! When were here, we’ll be living the dream.’

She continued: ‘Seventeen years ago, when we got very excited about buying this palazzo, the plans that we had then are still the same plans we have now.

‘Obviously we’ve had many ups and downs but we will get there and we will get to the same goal that we had.

‘The truth of the matter is we are in love with this, we love this! People could say with all the money you’ve invested in this you could have bought yourself a B&B with stunning views – yeah we could have done, but it’s not palazzo San Benedetto!’

In a GoFundMe page hoping to raise money for the project, Andrew and Katja admitted that it’s been a long journey to grapple with to strive for rennovations.

‘We left the UK with our two kids in 2018 to renovate our medieval palazzo in Abruzzo,’ they penned.

‘Parts of which are 1,200 years old and the newest part from the 16th century – in 2008, one year prior to the L’Aquila earthquake.

‘Years later in 2020 we had the seismic structural work completed and are now still on our long rollercoaster ride of a journey to renovate and save Palazzo San Benedetto a cultural heritage monument.

‘We plan to live in Palazzo San Benedetto and eventually run the premises as holiday apartments so that the income from this activity will go towards maintaining this magnificent piece of Italian history, (the equivalent of a UK Grade 1 listed building) for many people to enjoy it for decades, and even centuries to come. It would be impossible for us to maintain the building without it generating income for its upkeep.

‘Sadly we are way behind schedule due to bureaucracy and have also now been left without the finances to complete this project.

‘Unfortunately since taking on this project, the funding previously available for restoration projects such as ours, was pulled by the Italian government out of the blue. Also, contrary to popular belief, we do not get paid to appear in the Help! We Bought A Village series.

‘Your support will help towards saving this unique palazzo, and will keep us motivated particularly with all the struggles we have already experienced, and are undoubtedly yet to encounter due to the huge amount of bureaucracy and legislation in place. Thank you so much.

‘For those of you who may have businesses and who would like to make larger donations by way of sponsorship of products please do contact us direct.’

Source Notice:

This article is republished from
www.dailymail.co.uk
on 2025-09-22 16:29:00.
Content and views belong to the original publisher, not UAE Today News.