Page 3: CASTELMEZZANO IN THE 1800s
Castelmezzano, in the province of Basilicata, now Potenza, is situated in the Southern Appenines, 2450 feet altitude.
High mountains and huge rocky formations of unusual and weird shapes rise all around the town. It was a picturesque, rustic, remote, primitive town of about 800 population.
Its stone houses, nestled together, clinging to the sides of the mountains, covered with sone or red tile roofs. The greater part were two to three story houses, each floor occupied by a separate owner, with individual entrances. This common ownership of land with houses tiered on the side of hills and mountains was perhaps the first co-operative ownership of land and homes, which today has become a financial state in many communities.
Some homes had stalls for donkeys, provisions for chickens and sometimes pigs, a single wood fireplace with chains, hooks and tripods for cooking, heating and preparing sausages, salami, hams and cheeses to hang from the ceilings to be smoked and cured.
There were no utilities, no electricity or running water. Water was supplied by one public fountain. Water for house usage was stored in special wood barrels, set on brackets on a wall in the house. Fresh cold water was carried from the fountain, in clay jugs called “cucomo” or wood vessels with a handle called “galetta.”
Laundry was washed in a valley brook, a long distance away from the town, scrubbed on a smooth rock shoulder of the brook, and carried home to be bleached. This was done by heating water in a huge copper kettle, over a wood fire, mixing wood ashes with boiling water, placing the clothes in a large wood tub with a heavy protective cloth over the top, and pouring the scalding wood ash mixture on it.
The railroad station was and is five miles down in a valley. The crushed rock roads were constructed between 1870 and 1880, with precipitous sharp curves and turns winding along the cliffs, upheld on the cliffside by stone retaining walls and parapets. There is also a shortcut path, for quadrupeds and humans, which is very scary, steep and dangerous.
On the way to and from the station you reach a plateau to a tunnel carved through the mountain, and as one comes out of the galleria, Castelmezzano suddenly makes it appearance.
(image) “Galleria” The Tunnel
Page 4: People lived mostly off the land, growing all kinds of fruit trees, olive trees and grapevines, wheat, corn and many other varieties of vegetables and legumes, and raising sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.
The land was divided in many small parcels. The population was made up of small landowners, peasants and shepherds.
Artisans were usually the same families, passing on their skills to their offspring for generation. Many were blacksmiths, tin and coppersmiths, carpenters and stone masons, tailors and shoemakers.
Masons quarried the stones, cut and carved the finished pieces, kilned lim. Carpenters and coopers cut the trees and made finished products with the lumber.
It took a long time and hard work to complete anything with the crude and primitive methods and tools, but they were very skilled in their trades.
The barter system was prevalent, including the periodically passing doctor, the local midwife and the barber. All were paid by exchanging goods and services.
Page 5: (image) Castelmezzano
(image) Retaining walls curves and turns
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