What is the Malavilla?
The museum tour
Malavilla is a late medieval building belonging to the fortified house type, which has almost disappeared in our Apennines. Malavilla and Malpasso were names used in old maps to identify places that were unsafe due to banditry or other dangers. The fortified house is a type of building that predates the tower house: it is a sort of link between a fortress and a 16th-century tower house. The construction philosophy of the building, generally three stories high, made of local stone, with a rectangular plan and a gabled roof in sandstone slabs, is based on the concepts of defense and self-sufficiency. The surprising aspect of Malavilla, despite its ancient origins, is the fact that it was designed according to a unified executive project: each of the building's construction details was created during the construction phase according to a precise and predetermined plan, never added later. The ground floor was used as a stable for raising a few animals, sufficient to ensure the livelihood of the people who lived there. The first floor was the actual living space, accessible from the outside via a retractable staircase that ensured the defense of the building. The second floor was used as a bedroom, but also as a dovecote for breeding pigeons. It was also the place from which to monitor the Val Fabiola area, dominated by the Castle of Castrignano, and the two passages to Val Parma and Val Baganza, crossed by the Via Longobarda, one of the Via Romee roads that linked Parma to Rome through the Apennines. Malavilla is a late medieval building belonging to the fortified house type, which has almost disappeared in our Apennines. Malavilla and Malpasso were names that identified, in old maps, places that were unsafe due to banditry or other dangers. The fortified house is a type of building that predates the tower house: it is a sort of link between a fortress and a 16th-century tower house. The construction philosophy of the building, generally three stories high, made of local stone, with a rectangular plan and a gabled roof in sandstone slabs, is based on the concepts of defense and self-sufficiency. The surprising aspect of Malavilla, despite its ancient origins, is the fact that it was designed according to a unified executive project: each of the building's construction details was created during the construction phase according to a precise and predetermined plan, never added later. The ground floor was used as a stable for raising a few animals, sufficient to ensure the livelihood of the people who lived there. The first floor was the actual living space, accessible from the outside via a retractable staircase that ensured the defense of the building. The second floor was used as a bedroom, but also as a dovecote for breeding pigeons. It was also the place from which to monitor the Val Fabiola area, dominated by the Castle of Castrignano, and the two passages to Val Parma and Val Baganza, crossed by the Via Longobarda, one of the Via Romee roads that linked Parma to Rome through the Apennines.
