Stone Buildings in Salento (Puglia, Italy): Materials and Techniques
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Proceedings of the First International Congress on Construction History, Madrid, 20th-24th January 2003, ed. S. Huerta, Madrid: I. Juan de Herrera, SEdHC, ETSAM, A. E. Benvenuto, COAM, F. Dragados, 2003. Stone buildings in Salento (Puglia, Italy): Materials and techniques F. Leccisi Apulia and in particular Salento area underwent a assignment 01' middle and big landed property. The deep transformation which changed the native look farms consist 01' an agglomerate 01' cottages and 01' and gave rise to a balanced relation between the facilities necessary to give hospitality to a certain landscape and the habitat. Nowadays this balance is number 01' families, 01' head ovine cattle and to give in crisis because of split up factors, brought about by the opportunity 01' manufacturing the milk to obtain the new economic forces, which begot deep changes its by-products. Another important characteristic 01' in agricultural structure 01' the South 01' Italy and led the farms is their inc1ination to the self-sufficiency, up to the breakdown 01' the middle farm, comerstone because they get by the land the necessary foodstuffs 01' the traditional agriculture. The subdivision 01' the for ayear and even provisions for the sowing. The agriculturallands has engendered their abandonment origins 01' these agglomerates are very old: the great or their conversion into lots. The trullo, house with number 01' ruins, dated back to the Roman times, conical roof, typical apulia construction, becomes a certify it. The farms, born as independent villa for the week-ends, loosing, then, its communities, as a consequence 01' the destruction 01' environmental feature and, as a consequence, the the cities and the towns, were given to gallant countryside is no more an economic resource to those warriors or courtiers: then they were given to the who work in ir. but a «Iandscape» to be admired. feudatories, who used them as summer houses. The Ancient centres, 01'ten forsaken because 01' the bad building complex consists 01' a central section on the sanitary conditions, became object 01'consumption to first tloor, where there are spacious rooms with a hall, be painted and illuminated in order to draw visitors' intended for the owner. The cheese storehouses, and attention and to sell, at a higher price, the trulli, the the warehouses for corn, oil and wine were annexed farms and the houses placed in that area. to the building (Calderazzi 1989). Along the sides 01' the courtyard, there are the staff lodgings, modest little houses often made up 01' just one room. The Tm: FARMS cattle has its place in the courtyards and in the stalls. The little church, the mili, the crusher and the In Apulia the farms. both for the territory facilities make the settlement self-sufficient. Some conformation and for the consequences 01' the farms were built with a defensive shape; the farms economic development, have a particular feature and placed in Otranto, on the Adriatic Sea. from where the represent the most rational and modern form 01' Saracens' incursions carne, are an example working organization and of conveyance surrender (Mongiello 1984). The peasants, converging on the 1284 F. Leccisi farms, felt themselves guaranteed for protection and It is to point out the plan of the fortified farms survi val; therefore they started to build their houses which have generaJly the shape of towers with a next to the farms, turning these agglomerates into square or rectangular base, and are surrounded by hamlets, vil!ages and towns. There are many exampla stone pits and slits, having, at their base, a moat and a of these developing processes in Salento. Unti] the drawbridge. These fortified farms are representative fifties, we have had three kinds of farms: the farm of a moment of growth of a further step compared consisting of o¡ive groves; the farm consisting of bare with the ancient hamlets, and testify some aspects of lands (prevalently used for grazing) and the farm the Byzantine organization. The typical plan consists consisting of olive graves and bare lands. of the tower-shaped structures. The residence of the Subsequently, and above al! during the ]ast twenty farmer is at the upper floors, while, at the ground years, the land outline has been divided into four floor, there are rooms to protect against the cattle, kinds: sheep farm, graniferous farm, olive farm and domestic habitations for farmhands and tenant farm consisting of a complex structure. The farm farmers, and rooms and premises used as folds Carestia (Famine) in Ostuni is the most (Costantini and Novembre 1984). representative farm with a complex structure. Notwithstanding its unauspicious name, it is a farm that gives rise to an agricultura] and breeding centre THE HOUSES WITH CORRIDOR (Mongiel!o 1996). The architectonical shapes of the construction are sumptuous and dated back to the The shape of town habitation is different. It has, beginning of the eighteenth century. It was built almost always, a double room form; the fireplace is according to the archdeacon Massari' s wil!, who was placed on the end wall and the rooms are built depth- of Lombardic origino The farm Carestia has come ward, shaping the plan of the so-called house with back to life thanks to the present owner' s dynamism corridor, curreduru. This kind of house consists of after a period of neglect. Nowadays, very busy three rooms: the tront and spacious one, known as agricultural and zootechnical activities take place in camera de nonti or casa de nanzi (first room), and the this farm. other two, leaned against the end waJl of the first room, with a common side, but not for this reason directly communicating. The corridor, curreduru or carretturu, is made out of one of the two smaller rooms to which is usuaJly annexed the kitchen (Favia L~~,.,~, . 1947; Simoncini 1960; Spano 1967; Colamonico 1970). The corridor, close to the inner division, is, on its upper part, bounded by a floorboard, cal!ed ntaulatu. In the characteristic houses of Salento, and particularly in Taranto and Brindisi areas, it can be found a single room plan placed upon a basement, or r ;1 ~...¡ 11 a big room completely subdivided into four parts by vertical and horizontal separators: kitchen, a1cove, t4J little room and storehouse (Cazzato and Costantini 1996). The bigger houses consist, instead, of rooms ~ i '"'' t "'" " ... placed one after the other. These corridor-houses r.- /-.t... consist of three rooms: a front and spacious one used /'jtl."-":"'.~ as living room and other two with a common side, but . ! . , :' ",,,,,,-=~,,.,:,,.,,,,: ',-;: -, ' ' ' , ". not directly communicating. The upper spaces consist ,, , .I'r:r '1§:..', ,:-~I~~, .. , .. ~ tL """'~," of two or three bedrooms, placed on the front line of ---.... the house or on the two room s adjoining the corridor. Figure 1 An inside wall staircase allows the entrance to these Planimetry of the farm Carestia in OstUni countryside rooms, while the staircase on the courtyard is used to Stone buiJdings in Salento (Puglia, Italy) materia1s and techniques 1285 . ~ _. ._.~ 1- , ~...".,~, - . 6 , . "' ; . - 'l., . 7 . 7" . " ("'. \ - ,. 7 7 . \. .\;" [Q9 6 '/-,'\ .-:\ -\ 5 3 3 2 2 3 o 2 4m 6bJ I 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Plan of the house with corridor: 1) living room; 2) room; 3) Planimetry-type of a house with court: 1) court; 2) entrance; corridor; 4) trapdoor leading to the cellar; 5) kitchen; 6) 3) bedroom; 4) kitchen; 5) toi1et: 6) stall; 7) vegetable stall; 7) toiJet; 8) vegetable garden; 9) cistern. garden; 8) mignano go up to the terrace.The corridor-house of Salento's lane, as it happens in many places of the area of Albania is enriched with the wine cellar, Mediterranean area: it is important lo remind the called ciddharu. It is noteworthy the wide diffusion of lberian mesetas, the Sardinian campidani, the coastal the use of the curreduru in Brindisi hinterland, in the plains and the steppes of the Balkan peninsula. The Murge of Taranto, the first terraces of the continental new element is the staircase leading lo the covering upland and the median narrow of the peninsula. In upper porch, used to expose agricultural products to Lecce's tableland, the house a curreduru lacks the the sunlight. The terrace also overlooks the public cellar and has only one storehouse whose entrance is way (Costantini 1979). on the corri dor. The rural house usually consists of one or two facilities, almost always at the ground floor, placed in a group of one room houses in side a courtyard of THE HOUSES WITH COURT collective use. These houses are placed on straight fronts, converging at right angle, and they do not In Lecce area the kind of construction with the always take the four sides of the courtyard up. As a corridor-shaped entrance is replaced by other kinds of matter of fact, there are simple or right angles construction. The Lecce' s peninsular territory is made formations of houses, while, on long and narrow up of houses which do not directly overlook the lanes courtyards, two groups of houses side by side to the of the suburb since they are substituted by the comt, road are often placed. in common to more than one house. A courtyard of It is necessary to pay attention also to the house various shape and size separates the houses fram the settlement of the Salento' s area of Greece, made up of 1286 F. Leccisi eleven small towns: Soleto, Martano, Calimera, Under the porch there are premises for the stables, the Zollino, Sterniatia, Castrignano dei Greci, milJs, the lodgings for sIaves and foreigners and in the Melpignano, Corigliano d'Otranto, Caprarica, Castri, centre, behind the vegetable garden, there is Zeus' Martignano.