QR4b LA CASSETTA DELLO SCALPELLINO DI CECROPE MAVILLA
On the ground floor of the Malavilla is exhibited the toolbox of Cecrope Malavilla, stonemason and bricklayer from Rimagna, in the Parma Apennines, Municipality of Monchio delle Corti. It is the classic box that every stonemason had, almost a symbol, his work companion, ready to solve every sandstone work, used to shape wall stones or corners starting from a larger boulder.
In it you will find: the testù or big head, used to hit the wedges (or punches) inserted into the boulder to obtain its first opening. In addition to the inevitable mallet or masol, there is the giandino or piciantòn, a chisel with a flat and thick tip for the first roughing of the cutting line, the chisels or tips to refine the stones and regularize them more; plumb and square to check the perpendicularity of the wall and square the corners, complete the box.
Cecrope Malavilla, known as "Šeco", was born in Rimagna on 7 January 1907, the last of eighteen children. He was therefore invited to make his own life very early and had to buy a ruin in stone where he began to live with his wife while they were both still working on the reconstruction of the house, to which Cecrope continued to dedicate himself until the end of his days. He often worked in a team with Aladino Dalcielo, and participated in the construction of the hydroelectric basin of Lake Ballano and numerous homes in the municipality of Monchio. It is said that he was extremely precise, such that at the slightest error he preferred to throw everything away and start again from scratch. His brother Michele was a talent for stone and created the Trefiumi fountain and the monument to the fallen in Valditacca. While he worked he often repeated out loud: "Tic, Tic, Tic, always poor and never rich!".