OUR
HISTORY
In 774, Charlemagne defeated the Lombards, conquering their kingdom. The Franks settled in the Po Valley, and elite members of their aristocracy replaced the Lombard ruling class. The Novara territory was divided into four political-administrative units, one of which was Pombia. In the Novara area, the Counts of Pombia bound their name to the veneration of Saint Majolus of Cluny, a Provençal saint like the former ancestors of this family. Specifically, between 1008 and 1038, at the current site of Cascina San Maiolo, was documented the build of a chapel devoted to the saint.
Cascina San Maiolo is located in the Novara countryside, south of the Torrion Quartara hamlet, next to an ancient ford on the Agogna stream, which the farm once guarded. The farmstead is built around a square courtyard, surrounded on all four sides by brick buildings. In the southeast corner, a cylindrical tower, typical defensive structure of the 15th-century, is still visible with a similar structure in the northwest corner. Despite numerous interventions over the centuries, the south and west facades have generally kept their ancient features, primarily from the 17th century, as evidenced by the arches of the carriage entrance and the type of masonry (D. Tuniz).
Paolo Cirri reports that the farmstead includes, on the east side, rooms for rice polishing and workers' quarters; to the south, the stable once used for oxen and workhorses; to the west, the building for laborers; and to the north, the tenant farmer's residence, the dairy cowshed and the granary. On the north side, there is also a small chapel dated 1666, which recalls the memory of an older sacred building devoted to Saint Majolus.Behind the north side, there is another smaller enclosed courtyard, with a pigsty to the west and another more recently built stable to the north. Outside the courtyards, to the north, there are the ruins of an oven, a washhouse on the small canal, and a separate building that was formerly used as a dormitory for the rice weeders (mondine), featuring characteristics of the early 20th century.
Taken from "Le cascine un patrimonio da recuperare. Indagine sulle strutture agricole di Novara e dell’Ovest Ticino" Provincia di Novara - Assessorato alla Cultura e ai Beni Culturali (p. 141, Susanna Borlandelli and Emiliana Mongiat) “Farms, an heritage to be recovered. Research among the agricultural structures of Novara and North-Ticino” Province of Novara - Department of Culture and Cultural Heritage (page 141, published by Susanna Borlandelli and Emiliana Mongiat)”.