THE PROPITIATORY POT
ITA
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During the reconstruction of the wooden floor separating the first floor from the second, it was necessary to make a break in order to add a support beam for the floorboards. This was because the house had tilted over time (due to neglect and the action of an ancient landslide) and, therefore, it was not possible to use both of the original recesses as supports for the floorboards. However, this circumstance made it possible to uncover a small room with a stone vault, hidden in the corner between the south-west and north-west sides, right where the new beam enters the wall.
At the base of the niche is a vase, a domestic ceramic pot, walled up and hidden during the construction phase of the building, confirming the careful design with which Malavilla was built (and refuting, instead, the improvisation and empiricism to which rural architecture is always relegated). It most likely contained a parchment with a propitiatory phrase against earthquakes or any other adversity that could have endangered the life of the building. A sort of good luck charm for the fate of the house, created by the very pagan culture that had conceived it.
Other 16th-century graffito ceramics were found during the restoration work and are on display on the second floor: one of them bears the coat of arms of the Bentivoglio family, an important feudal family of 14th-century Bologna.