QR1 THE SLOT
Several times during the visit it will be recalled that the Malavilla belongs to the building type of the fortified house, that is, a fortified peasant house. In this logic, the ground floor was the weak point of the building and therefore could not be equipped with large openings that could expose it to possible dangers of intrusion. The house was in fact protected by the “armoured” entrance portal and its closing system with poles embedded in the walls. On the north-east side there is therefore a small rectangular opening, very narrow and high, the loophole. It could be used as a hole from which to shoot with arquebuses, bows, crossbows but its dimensions were conceived to be themselves a guarantee of anti-intrusion given the very small dimensions that did not even require the need to add bars. The interior of the loophole is particularly interesting from a construction point of view: note the detail of the structure of the slide composed of sandstone courses forming a sort of staircase that we still see today but which in reality would have been plastered to form a uniform and smooth slide towards the inside to facilitate defense operations and the use of weapons, but also to widen, albeit slightly, the diffusion of light.