Welcome to Europe's most cursed town

Stories of new born babies with two hearts and three lungs, and of sudden suspect landslides and car accidents amongst others have led to the Italian town of Colobraro being known as Europe’s most cursed town.

Italians won’t say the name of the town out loud and the police won’t punish you for speeding on the towns roads for fear of being cursed.

This however has not reduced tourist traffic to the town. Each summer, a festival were “jinx is turned to magic” is held, in a bid to reveal the town’s history and attract tourists.

Neighboring towns in the southern region of Italy simply refer to Colobraro a ‘the town’, and their residents avoid passing through the town’s maze-like ruins.

The story of the curse is as old as the town itself and is linked to the origin of its name – ‘coluber’ which means serpent in Latin and is believed to be the embodiment of evil.

Although the curse has always been feared, it was only said to have been brought to life in the 20th Century by a lawyer and a witch.

According to the legend, Biagio Virgilio was a wealthy local attorney who never lost a case and had plenty of enemies. One day in court, to stress his point, he exclaimed: “If what I say is false, may this chandelier come down” and it did.

No one was hurt, but his name became synonymous with bad omens, putting the hex on  Colobraro’s reputation, and his family had to flee the town.

'We can turn jinx into magic,' a resident of the town, Virgallito said. 'Colobraro is a magical place, come here and you'll understand why. It's perched atop the last hill before the sea and has a breathtaking panoramas.

'There’s nothing of evil here. All these weird stories stem from a wide-spread belief that we bring bad luck, but this is what other towns say because they have always envied us. And envy is evil.'