What was previously known as the “world’s loneliest house” may now only be the world’s second loneliest house, thanks to a new contender found in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains.
The previous title-holder is a home located on a deserted island near Iceland, which has sat empty for almost a century, managing to look extremely picturesque while doing so.
The challenger that has emerged is called the Buffa di Perrero, and it is located on Monte Cristallo in the Dolomite Mountains. The house is carved into the side of a sheer rock face, and overlooks a sharp drop, but still features brick walls, a roof, four framed windows, and a camping chair.
It’s believed that war is the reason for the hut’s strange location; a number of ‘bivouacs’ were built by Italian soldiers during World War I as a way to gain strategic advantage over enemies. A bivouac shelter is a makeshift campsite used primarily by soldiers, backpackers, or mountain climbers. The shelters were used by soldiers to rest and store their gear.
Climbers can access the hut via a mountain trail, or an improvised rope ladder, but locals warn that accessing the abode requires a “high level of fitness”. The Via Ferrata, or ‘Iron Path’, features steel ladders and cables added for particularly treacherous parts of the trail. A series of photos and videos posted to Instagram in 2019 by one intrepid adventurer show a man sitting on the camping chair at the front of the home, as well as a video of some of the cables on the trail leading to the hut. The caption reads, “This is my new bivouac, you want to live here with me?”
Local newspaper Il Dolomiti reported that the hut had been rendered unusable for climbers after the roof gave way. Images taken by a mountain rescue team show snow having come through a collapsed section of the roof.
Image: Instagram
This article first appeared on Over60.