History of casale
A travel inside the walls of history
Rappini farmstead’s origins date back to the XVI century. At that time the area called Agro Pontino was part of the Papal States, swamplands and malaria made agriculture impossible in there.
It was the venetian engineer Gaetano Rappini the first who reclaimed this area during the modern age. He arrived there at the direct request of the Pope Pio VI, who reward him with the farmstead and its lands.
It was the year 1776 and since then the history of Rappini family has intertwined with that of the farmstead and its lands. Thanks to the reclamation, which made agriculture and breeding possible, the farmstead slowly transformed itself into a productive farming center.
Century after century the farmstead has been modified according to the necessities of its inhabitants. Firstly there was only a little church and some rooms, then some wide stores were built. At a later date it was fortified and provided with a sighting tower. Then the time came for the stalls and the sheds, the farmyard and the shelters… Then the school, the hospital, the bakery and the market… They even used their own coin, called “Paludella Pontificia”!
Hence the farmyard became a real point of reference in the territory, and it has never lost that inspiration: it was and remains a welcoming place.
Once it provided lodgings for farmers and pilgrims, today it provides accommodation for travellers and artists from all over the word. If once it was a farming store, nowadays it can be considered a store of all the stories and the memories it contains.
Made of stone and big wooden beams, of cobbles and bricks, of lime and sand, of iridescent colours, grass, trees, animals and nature. So it was, and so it is. We don’t want it to change.
Lodging
It hosted more than 100 workers for the harvesting and the grain production; there lived more than 80 families of refugees of the Second World War and 4 families lived there until the 60s.
Today, these rooms, modern in services but simple as in the past, host new families for any kind of holiday.
Commonal areas in the ancient sheds for everyone, today restored with relaxation and play areas; the huge kitchen for convivial dinners; the little cave and its museum, the store with the books and the dancing room.
The park with its huge pines, the gardens of natural herbs, the biological swimming pool, the permaculture green house.
Everything is available to guests, that will find in the Casale much more than a simple apartment!!!
