The Italian government is to sell scores of historic properties to help it tackle its huge budget deficit.

A haunted fortress, a cardinal’s palace and an island in the Venetian lagoon are among 50 sites for sale.

The move recalls 2012, when Greece was forced to sell off some its beautiful islands to foreign buyers, to chip away at its enormous debts.

The Italian government hope that the nation’s treasures will be bought by private businesses and converted into hotels, restaurants and museums, bringing much needed employment and international investment.

Minister for the economy Fabrizio Saccomanni aims to make £425million from the sell-off.

It was approved as part of an emergency decree aimed at keeping Italy’s 2013 budget deficit within 3 per cent to avoid corrective action by Brussels.

The ‘Kill Public Debt’ plan originally listed 350 properties but officials now deem that some assets, such as military airbases, are poorly suited for the commercial market.

The properties include Orsini Castle, which sits above its own feudal village near Viterbo, about 60miles from Rome.

The medieval fort was built for Pope Nicholas III in the 1270s and has a Euro 15 million price tag. Said to be haunted, it was used as a prison from the mid-19th century to 1989 and has since been an art gallery.