Vigna di Valle Estate:
historic farm buildings

Of great importance to the company is the rural farmhouse that has presided over the significant agricultural, livestock, and fishing activities in the countryside of Vigna di Valle for centuries. Evidence of the building can be found in the fresco executed by Ignazio Danti (1536-1586), depicting the territories of the San Pietro Patrimony in the Gallery of Geographic Maps in the Vatican Palaces. The rural farmhouse, which oversaw the productive activities and housed granaries, stables, workshops, and laboratories, was expropriated from the Torlonia family by the Agency for the Colonization of the Tusco-Lazial Maremma and the Fucino territory, created in February ’51 to reform the agricultural backwardness in the region. From legal documents dating back to 1673, it is learned that during that period, the Vigna di Valle estate belonged to the Cesi family of Acquasparta. In 1695, when Federico Ruspoli married Maria Isabella, the daughter of the Duke of Acquasparta, the Cesi family committed to providing a dowry, finalizing, among other things, the transfer of ownership in February 1710 of an estate in Vigna di Valle, in the land of Bracciano.

The restoration project of the rural farmhouse focused on the refunctionalization of the existing ancient rural structures through the adoption of recovery, reuse, and requalification interventions for the buildings, which were left in a state of abandonment or underutilization but well preserved and unchanged in relation to the original architecture. The refunctionalization interventions pursued compliance with the overall permitted volume and the characteristics of rural buildings.

The interventions maintain, restore, and reproduce the typological and architectural elements of the rural buildings and the construction features of the area. In the main building of the rural farmhouse, the upper floor houses the offices of the agricultural company and accommodations for administrators, technicians, caretakers, and specialized seasonal workers. Two apartments were created on the same floor exclusively dedicated to agritourism clients interested in medium to long-term stays. On the ground floor of the smaller building, the processing and preservation laboratory for the fishery and related catering services were located. A show kitchen was chosen to display the original quality of the food products used. The dining room also connects to the laboratory and the fresh and processed fish sales point. Within the same farmhouse, there will be rooms designated for agritourism.