Sorrento illegal house demolished after 19‑year legal battle

On 7 August 2026 authorities demolished a roughly 400‑cubic‑metre illegal structure at Via Santa Lucia 27 in Sorrento. The building, owned by Michelangelo Scannapieco and Maria Elefante, had been erected in a protected agricultural‑environmental zone subject to landscape and seismic constraints, and was deemed unsanctionable and non‑condonable.

The demolition followed a protracted judicial process that began with a 2007 court ruling. Multiple municipal demolition orders were ignored, leading the property to be seized as municipal heritage. After a failed self‑demolition attempt in 2024 and successive appeals rejected by the Tar Campania and the Tribunal of Torre Annunziata, the order to raze the structure was finally enforced. Police, Carabinieri, municipal police and the provincial fire brigade carried out the forced demolition, ending a 19‑year legal dispute.