THE WINDOWS WITH SEATS
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On the second floor, as on the first, on the south-west side, there is a window with side seats. These are valuable elements (typical of castles and fortresses, tower houses and fortified houses, and not of simple rural buildings) that remind us of the architectural richness of Malavilla and of the client who certainly financed its construction.
These seats had a dual function: they allowed small tasks to be carried out in natural light, particularly for women engaged in the daily toil of running the household and recovering any waste that could be converted into a resource for the family. Secondly, they were used for the defense of the building and for the monitoring of the territory by the men. Malavilla was certainly part of a system of small fortified buildings that could serve as a garrison.
For this reason, it was possible to exit from the window on the second floor onto a wooden balcony, which was used to collect pigeon eggs, but also as a patrol point and therefore as a defensive element, both for the fortified house itself and for the surrounding territory dominated by the Castle of Castrignano until the end of the 15th century.
It certainly needed to control the two main routes connecting Val Fabiola to Val Baganza via Tino d'Oro, and to Val Parma via the current Cozzano pine forest. Military control, but also economic control, given the presence of the Via Longobarda, a historic road that connected Parma to the sea in the Middle Ages and was certainly used in the following centuries as well.