History
The searches on the origins of Molino Maufet they project our minds into the imagination of those who have succeeded, .. of those who have handed down an art often unknown to us out of duty and perhaps even for a pinch of passion. Three centuries separate us and inevitably see us involved in beauty and in the responsibility of handing down.
The French flag hidden behind numerous layers of plaster.
It seems that for a certain amount of time the Sciucco family hosted skilled French artisans specialized in the manufacture of the famous stone millstones of "La Fertè"
Cross-section of the family activity of that era
Internal view of the mill
Molino Maufet: over two and a half centuries, a mill and two families ..
Sciucchi (Sciucco) and Mazzina
It was February 24, 1826 when the Sciucchi family decided to sell the eighteenth-century pile to keep only the mill. In 1875 the property belonged to Michele Mazzina, son of Giovanni Battista Mazzina, who died a few years earlier .. however, as often happened a woman, Marta Mazzina was managing it while awaiting the appointment of the heirs.
It was January 16, 1888 when the succession between Giovanni Battista Sciucchi (son of Giuseppe Sciucchi), Vitale Sciucchi (son of Giovanni Battista Sciucchi), his sister Giovanna Sciucchi, Ancilla Mazzina (daughter of Lorenzo Mazzina) was opened on a snowy winter day. ) and Battista Bordoli (son of Pietro Bordoli). About ten years pass when, all agree, on August 19th 1896 Giovannina becomes the sole owner of the mill. Shortly thereafter she will lose her husband Eugenio Battista Mazzina, while her father will die in 1918.
After a whole life, Giovannina (Sciucchi), the backbone of the life of the mill, died on March 26, 1941 and bequeathed it to her two sons Ernesto and Giovanni Mazzina, 61 and 59 years old respectively, "the Maufets" .. two very different characters yet so complementary .. enterprising one (able to send his brother on foot from Villatico to Delebio to Gino Dell'Oca's carpentry just to know how much a new wheel would cost him in the 1950s!) .. shy and shy the other .. With their cart they delivered flour to all the hamlets of Colico .. and their days passed between the hard work at the mill, the hearth and calling the children who enjoyed playing near the wheel on the canal ..
Ernesto .. "L'Ernestin" .. has left, in all those who remember it, the image of a man of few words .. who loved to warm up with his stool in front of the fireplace .. in a mill made of thick walls in stone, an earthen floor and creaking boards .. a roof of nailed boards.
It is a very cold 11th December 1960, when, with the disappearance of the last Miller .. the time on the old alarm clock of the mill stops .. for 57 very long years .. until it reaches us ..
We are sure that it is a piece of history that has remained in the hearts of many .. we will be grateful to all those who will help us, among other things, to reconstruct the belonging of the initials imprinted on the stone of the architrave ..
La ruota
We started from a single little clue.. a torn piece of paper.. It was the year 1956, on October 8th.. and our miller Ernesto Mazzina paid a deposit of 60,000 lire (considerable figure at the time) for the supply of the new external wheel of the "Mazzini Ernesto" mill to the carpenter "Gino Dell'Oca".
L'affresco
Saint Cristina from Bolsena [Protector of the millers - July 24]
So here we are at the last (in chronological order) surprise that our Ancient Mill gave us, during the sandblasting of the main facade.
A little further upstream of the first entrance (Mole premises), we find a second door .. once accessed the staircase, the granary and another small room, facing the house.
We look up at this last access and notice (just above the architrave and the faded house number) ..a small square niche (no larger than 50 cm. per side).
The years that have passed and the insult of the weather do not begon for leniency, all, of course .. to the detriment of what (with good probability) was contained there ...
..Curiosity and healthy patience have done the rest..
What could barely be perceived, by removing the material (excess of a thick layer of white plaster) was a small and pale brown writing composed of a handful of letters, preceded by a point " . .ri...n."
Before the removal of the plaster, four small holes were quite clearly visible at each corner of the niche; evident affixing (in recent times) of a painting or a support suitable for supporting a given votive representation (as is often found on the old valley houses, ... use and custom to bless the property and draw from its benevolence).
Returning to our letters, a few months have passed in the search for that self-styled Saint who could better confit himself, to the letters, to the context of the mill and to the life carried out within it .. not without sacrifices and vicesitudes for 300 years.
So comes the suggestion of a Painter's Friend on "how to search". Thanks to a certain amount of luck, further timid traces of color emerged.
Despite the reasonable doubt but thanks to the discovery of another letter
" . .ri...na" we associated the work with the representation of Saint Cristina from Bolsena.
La pila
Our Pila, "the most spartan but ..true Queen" of the grinding complex; it was located in a small building (dated 1702 owned by Sciucco Battista di Abbondio, Levelllario dei Padri Agostiniani di Gravedona) just upstream of the Antico Molino Maufet. Predecessor of at least a hundred years with respect to the Molino, he nevertheless flanked it productively, from construction (prior to 1826) until 1870.
It is of the double mortar type, it was used for barley scaling.
It is a monolithic stone block in the shape of a parallelepiped in the upper part of which there are two piles (holes) about 45 cm in diameter by 40 deep (weight c.a 25 q).
On the sides of the monobloc are evident two large carvings in which a large wooden frame was fixed. On the wooden frame were mounted devices (percussions) which, moved by the driving force of a small external hydraulic wheel, served the motion of the mortars for the polishing of the Barley (or Dried Chestnuts).
CURIOSITY: in the Teresian Cadastre, in 1702 it is counted as the only Pile present in the territory of Colico. From the notifications it turned out to be worth 4 shields, about twice as much as a two-wheeled mill!
The Emblem of the Augustinian Order and the Pile at the time of relocation
