Commercial property business for sale villa "La Macina"
Recently restructured building in the most beautiful and untouched part of the historical centre of Anacapri: Piazza Le Boffe. The building is comprised of two floors with a spacious covered terrace with panoramic view of the sea, the town square and Mount Solaro.
Directly accessible from the square, it is composed of large rooms, kitchens, wood oven, various personal hygiene facilities and an office. All tastefully decorated matching the arabesque architecture of the square and the building itself, which was once upon a time an olive press, a ceramic pottery, and, most recently, a bar and restaurant. The interior serviceable area of both floors totals approximately 230 sq.m., the covered terrace 80 sq.m plus 15 sq.m., with the possibility of using some areas of the square in front.
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Photogallery
The Boffe neighbourhood
The Boffe neighbourhood can be undoubtedly considered the historic heart of Anacapri. It is the place which has most retained traces of its uncontrived antique architecture, and continues to be a required sight-seeing stop for those who desire a glimpse of the past, its narrow alleyways revealing jealously guarded secrets only to the discerning few. Although ancient structures belonging to rural Mediterranean architecture can be found interspersed throughout the landscape, one can ascertain, without a shadow of doubt, that the centre of this cultural wonder is to be found in the Boffe, where such buildings are still, for the most part, discernable. Here, we can find houses with barrel, rib, humpbacked and cloister vaults, which on Capri are clearly derived from Roman architecture.
Local limestone, red puteolan volcanic sandstone and lime were used in construction. For the making of the beaten ‘astrico’ - the covering of the vaults with the traditional plaster called ‘malta’, we have the following the description by Edwin Cerio, the architect-historian who best of all knew how to combine environment and architecture, enriching Capri with his excellent work (in Anacapri one needs only to be reminded of The Rosaio villa in the Fraita district): "The process of this technique is extremely simple: a 15 or 20 cm. layer of volcanic rock dust soaked in lime milk is spread over the customary walling of the vault.
A squad of workmen begins the work of beating the plaster that lasts three days, normally using the ‘mazzoccola’, a big wooden spatula with a flat downward face and sides shaped in a sharp angular fashion. On the first day, the beating is done with the flat face of the mazzoccola, on the second day with the sides and on the third day again with the flat face, until the beaten surface becomes perfectly smooth. All the while the beating is carried out, the plastering is continuously soaked in lime milk. By the end, it should be reduced to about a third of its original thickness; convenientely left damp, the vault is covered with earth, grass, and hay or straw, so that it dries slowly”.
At this point, we should specify what was over the past few centuries considered “a house”. This concept also differed according to the degree of poverty or comfort of whomever had to build a residence for himself and his family. For the least well-off, a “house” meant a construction made up of two areas: the bedroom and the kitchen; the bathroom and toilet were generally set outside. Most houses had just one floor. Those who could afford it (i.e. big land owners), had the main rooms built on the second floor which were accessed by means of an external staircase resting on a rampant arch. On the ground floor there were the cellars, the sheds and hygiene facilities. Before raising the walls, one would consider digging out in the earth underneath a cistern to collect rainwater, hoping it would last until the first autumn rains. Water was given to the hardy tomato plant seedlings only when first planted: then they were on their own. To this day, the highest concentration of barrel and cloister vaulted houses is to be found in the Boffe district.