In Noto’s countries, located in San Paolo Bonfalà district,
we propose the sale of this exceptional farm-house
on a wide lemon-field of about 4 hectares, well connected to the new Siracusa – Noto motor-way.
The Farm-house’s History
The Bonfalà farm-house was built in the eighteenth century by the Modica’s of San Giovanni, owners of Bonfalà feud, originally extended in a hundred of hectares.The architecture and the organization of the farm follow the illuministic ideas of the age.
The entrance of the farm is on the south side; on the ground floor there were the bathrooms, the kitchens and the workers’ accommodations.
The stairs in the internal courtyard bring to the master’s apartment, it’s located on the top floor and it’s endowed with a panoramic terrace towards the country.On the first floor of another side of the building, there were the servants’ rooms and the guest-quarters.
The farm has also some stables, millstones for the grape, some cellars and oil-mill.
The availability of the water was guaranteed by a canals’ system that conveys the rain-water in a cistern under the courtyard, in the middle of which there is the well.
The Farm-house in the Sicilian history
The farm-house is the typical agricultural structure of the south-eastern country of Sicily, fit to the requirements of the agricultural production.
In the past the farm-houses, far from inhabited centres, were the economical heart of the large estate. The oldest farm-houses trace back to the 17th – 18th century. The owner lived there just in the period of the harvest and the exactions. Permanently the responsible (called the exciseman, the overhung, the guardian, the attendant, in accordance with his specific functions), lived there, without family, but with few security employees.
On the contrary, in summer the farm-houses were full of a hundred of workers and day-labourers. The Sicilian agronomists went to study in England and when they came back they imported the model of the agricultural revolution of that country growing olive-grove, almond-grove and vineyard.
The characteristic elements of the farm are the central courtyard and the warehouses provided with big hollows (real interred silos for the cereals’ preservation).
One of the main functions of the farm is in fact preserving the products before sale.Some farm-houses, above all the most important for feud dimensions, were provided with tenters to dry the almonds, millstones and wine-cellars, oil-mill.
