alpine villages of Zerasca
The territory of Zeri, due to its geographical position which has isolated for centuries from the rest of the Lunigiana, as well as the absence of prominent landmarks such as castles, towers and fortified villages, is always been one of the least known to tourists. This is a very mountainous territory, often impenetrable, whose population has always worked hard to get the difficult living from cultivating the land and, above all, by raising. It is therefore an area rich in ethnographic evidence and material culture.
precisely within this context we can place the need to maintain three interesting location of the Apennines: Formentera, and Porcilecchio Gurfuglieta. These names refer to three ancient human settlements are located around 900 meters above sea level, on the slopes of Mount Spiaggi (1554 m), a short distance from the Pass of the Two Saints and the infamous resort of Zum Zeri.
This Alpine villages or settlements built by people devoted to pasture, populated only during the summer when the herds were brought to the cool mountain pastures, after being fed throughout the winter in most of the fields located down at the villages.
In late spring, when frost was over now, people (adults and adolescents) from the villages of Walnut and Patigno, they walked up the steep paths alp with their animals (sheep and goats), with the intention to spend the whole summer, returning from their families only at the beginning of autumn. This traditional transhumance has necessitated the building of solid and reliable shelter, where shelter their flocks at night or in bad weather and where to place a bed and the few indispensable, furniture for everyday life.
likely, given that this tradition lasted, probably, from the early history, antiquities in the shelters were built with the wood of many forests and, given the lack of resistance to the inclemency of winter, had to be rebuilt every year. It is also possible that this type of camp, at least initially, was not stable, but was prepared each year in different areas.
Later, with the refinement of technology and with the increase of families, villages were built in stone, whose benefits are obvious. Each family had its possession, consisting of a "Cassina", ie a hut of stone and any outbuildings (a well, a bakery, a barn, a woodshed, etc..) Together with a piece of land to pasture.
Although the first written documents that remain date from the early '500 (any previous document is gone burned in the fire in the Pontremoli 1495), the birth of the villages could be located, perhaps as early as the late Middle Ages. Instead, the existing plant of the villages could be dated roughly to the seventeenth or eighteenth century, with many relevant interventions made during the nineteenth century.
The architecture of these settlements can give us an idea of \u200b\u200bskill building of the peasant population of the time. In the villages, in fact, one can see gigantic doorways, corners more proof plumb, windows elegant stone retaining walls to dry, covered pits, wood stoves, stairways and paved mule tracks. Formentera In addition, we see the rich water system, consisting of several fountains (we have identified at least seven) located in various parts of the settlement, and made easily accessible to channel water from a stream. Also in Formentera, the largest of three villages, there is even a chapel dedicated to St. Bartholomew and constructed according to the inscription on the facade side, in 1776.
Formentera consists of about thirty buildings, separated by carugi gutters and rainwater and, at the top, there are some farmyards paved with sandstone, which served as a "square", a place where they carried out all social activities and group exhibitions, including the most anticipated was the summer festival of St. Bartholomew, at in which the wives and girls of the villages went up to the pasture with all kinds of goodies, ate and danced around the fire all night. Porcilecchio Gurfuglieta and, instead, are made up of scattered farms and did not have an internal road network, as in Formentera. There are however a number of wells, troughs for cattle, paved paths and portals monolithic. There are also other smaller clusters, as Collaracci, not far from Porcilecchio, and others who are not even marked on maps. Finally, we report the presence of the house called "Piagnaro, often linked to the name of the quarry stone used to make lamented, that is typical of sandstone slabs that covered the roofs of farms. In all likelihood, the weeping of Formentera and the neighboring settlements come from there.
The villages are gradually fallen into disuse since the early '50s, when the economic boom el'espandersi of cities has led young people to leave their native villages and their traditions, and to fit in the factories and jobs required by a technocratic capitalist economy expanding rapidly.
Currently, settlements are in a bad condition. Gurfuglieta is near total annihilation, standing only a few crumbling walls, and some portal somewhere to farm more robust others. Porcilecchio is in slightly better conditions, but the forest is swallowing him completely and the walls are torn by the mighty tree roots. Formentera is certainly the best preserved village, but the majority of the buildings is unsafe or close to collapse. The roofs are smashed, completely rotting wooden floors, the walls are seriously "spanciature and structural cracks. Only the stone frames of windows and doors have remained more or less intact, along with some corner that lies straight and healthy. The water goes everywhere and the moss, ferns and tree roots make it way through the stones and weep . The logs used to build roofs despite having endured several decades of snow and neglect, rotting and collapsing under the weight of the stone roofs.
A true treasure of material culture is crumbling before our eyes, and suddenly action is required if you want to save it. In the past there have been proposals for revaluation, however, nothing has been completed.
intervention course of recovery, including only structural, at this point would require a large amount of expenditure, not to mention the creation of informative panels, museum or exhibition space and the safety and maintenance of the municipal road.
The best destination profile that you can think of for these sites is "eco-museum" or "outdoor museum", a space in which to recreate and illustrate the pastoral life and activities related to it, primarily transhumance, then the art of cheese, crafts, medicine People and rituals, architecture and cuisine.
But all this is secondary, is a dream that can not be achieved unless and until such action is taken to preserve that which still stand up. The expenditure for rehabilitation will certainly be high, but we want to let this go to ruin a legacy of our history and our culture? Where is the EU? Where are the Superintendence Cultural Heritage and public bodies? A couple of signs, one at the entrance of the village and another near the oratory are already a good thing, but not enough. In fact, the signs will be in five years, but will indicate only a heap of rubble that collapsed into the valley.
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| courtyard paved with Cassina (Formentera) |
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| roof weeps well preserved (Formentera) |
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| Formentera, landscape |
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| Stradello homes to Formentera |
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| Oratorio di San Bartolomeo, 1776 (Formentera) |
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| Cassina isolated (Formentera) |
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| Formentera, the village in the woods To download the coordinates of Google Earth ™, click here |
Coordinates Google Earth ™
To allow users of site easily and accurately locate the places described in our texts, we provide the satellite coordinates. These coordinates should be used within the well-known Google Earth ™ software, which lets you view satellite photos of the entire planet.
We believe that this software is completely free, is an excellent tool for location, because it also provides maps, place names and media of all kinds.
the link will open the file directly. Kml that automatically launch the Google Earth ™. At the close of the program, through the appropriate dialog box, you can choose whether to save the file in its "Places".
To download the free Google Earth ™, please visit http://earth.google.it/
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