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 recess for the addition of a support beam for the floorboards. This was due to the fact that the house had tilted over time (due to neglect and a paleofrana) and therefore it was not possible to use both of the original recesses as support for the floorboards themselves. However, this circumstance made it possible to uncover a small room with a stone vault, located 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, proof of the careful design with which Malavilla was built (contrary to the improvisation and empiricism to which rural architecture is always relegated).
It most likely contained coins as an offering or 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 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 in 14th-century Bologna.