THE ELEVATED ACCESS
ITA
ENG
A characteristic feature of the fortified house is that it is a fortified rural building. There are two entrances to the fortified house: one on the ground floor, for animals, and one on the first floor, which is elevated and accessible via a staircase that could be retracted inside to ensure the building's defense. The architecture of this portal, almost identical to that of the ground floor, is astonishing for the ingenuity with which it was designed in every detail before being built. The locking system consisted of hardwood posts, probably oak, a typical local wood, which were inserted into the wall along their entire length when the door was open and wedged into the opposite wall to secure the closure. Note the design and construction quality of the connection between the post and the wall, made from a single block of sandstone that acts both as a joint for the post and as a clamp to anchor the piers to the masonry, thus counteracting the peak load of the piers themselves.
But how to defend the ground floor? The door on the ground floor is also, so to speak, armored by posts placed both horizontally (as on the first floor) and diagonally, embedded in the holes in the vault and on the ground.
The internal staircase, which connects the lower floor with the upper floors, was also withdrawn to the upper floor, protected by a trapdoor closed from the inside and reinforced by oak posts. A second trapdoor ensured the separation between the first and second floors and thus the division of the living space from that of the dovecote.