Architect Bruno Occhipinti interviewed by Gianluca Biscalchin

Rural architecture tells the story of the culture of wine, agricultural traditions, and the peculiarities of a land. Like Vittoria. But can it also be a model for the future?

In Sicily, every town and city has its own specific agricultural architecture. The peculiar trait of Vittoria is that no one lived in the countryside. In the evening, farmers returned to the city. People only went to the countryside to work. This led to a local variant of the palmento, or grape-crushing and fermentation vat, usually carved into living stone, and agricultural buildings. Architect Bruno Occhipinti, who has worked passionately to recover this heritage and who knows the history and evolution of the peasant culture of Vittoria, tells Solco about it. 

B.O.: Vittoria is a city of that was specifically founded, dating back to the period of the Spanish viceroyalty, at the beginning of the 1600s, so it is only 400 years old. In that period, new cities were created and new inhabitants were attracted by the abolition of duties for those who moved there. In addition, in the founding decree, each new citizen was promised an amount of land to cultivate. 

So, the city was born with a strong agricultural bent? 

B.O.: Esatto. Ma B.O.: Yes, it was, but it was only in the second half of the nineteenth century that the great transformation took place, thanks to viticulture. In fact, what made Vittoria great was its wine production, since the entire territory planted with vines, from the upper part to the sea. In parallel, an architecture designed for the needs of wine production also evolved., grazie alla viticoltura. Infatti, quello che ha reso grande Vittoria è stata la sua produzione di vino, con tutto il territorio vitato, dalla parte alta fino al mare. In parallelo, è cresciuta un’architettura pensata per le esigenze della produzione vinicola. 

Hence, the palmento…

B.O.: Not only that. There are two types of architecture. A poorer one, linked to the need to protect oneself from the elements, from the heat, the cold or the rain. These homes were very basic, sometimes just a few square meters--a room, in short. They were not linked to agricultural productivity, but simply answered a personal need. This is the first architecture, defined as subsistence, just the bare minimum. 

And the second?

B.O.: With the development of wine production, things changed. More organized structures began to be built, such as the palmento, and everything that surrounds the world of wine. But the architecture linked to the palmento had a typically Vittoria evolution here. 

With what characteristics?

B.O.: The local palmento here was not the same as that of other areas. In Marsala, for example, white grapes were pressed and the must immediately put into barrels. Here, however, red grapes were grown, and therefore vats were necessary for the must to macerate.. A Marsala, per esempio, si producevano uve bianche che venivano pigiate e messe immediatamente in botte. Qui, invece, si produceva uva rossa, e quindi era necessaria la presenza di tini per far macerare l’uva.

Did this determine the birth of a typical Vittoria palmento? How did it work?

B.O.: So, the palmento is essentially made of a furrow or trough. The grapes were transported by mules, then unloaded. They were pressed by foot, literally (actually, the workers wore boots, otherwise they would hurt themselves...). The pulp, together with the must, flowed down the trough into vats dug into the ground, where everything macerated for about 48 hours. 

All this happened in the palmento.

B.O.: Exactly. Then, the other architectural module was the cellar, which had no particular design other than that of a room holding wooden casks and vats. After the 48-hour maceration, the must and pulp were transferred to the open vats, where the fermentation then took place. While the palmento had the trough and floor for crushing, the cellar was a simple environment. Normally the cellar and palmento were connected to each other, one in front of the other or side by side.

In practice, a combined production unit...

B.O.: Yes. Around this unit, depending on the economic conditions of the family, houses were built, which could be small complexes or other buildings. The Occhipinti winery is an example of this: a typical rural building intended for production, with a palmento, an olive mill to make olive oil, stables and more, in short, a complex structure that revolved around a courtyard.

How long did these winery complexes survive?

B.O.: Vittoria maintained a typically wine-based agricultural economy until the 1950s. After that, things began to change. Other grape varieties began to be planted and “protected agriculture” began to spread, inside greenhouses. This led to a significant change in the agricultural landscape.

What remains in this area of ​​that peculiar way of performing agriculture?

B.O.: Here, people slept in the countryside only during the grape harvest period. Let's take Marsala again as a comparison: in its territory there are 50 districts--50 hamlets where people lived permanently. Vittoria has only one or two small villages, inhabited, as I said, only for the grape harvest. Fossa di Lupo, where Arianna began her work, is a small group of houses, one next to the other for protection and to stay in company. Now it is abandoned. 

Like the dry stone walls?

B.O.: Yes, another fundamental element of our territory. Those walls had a double function: that of clearing the land of stones, and of creating the boundary walls that served to delimit the parcels and the grazing areas. Today everything is being lost, because as they fall no one rebuilds them. A metre of dry stone wall costs 80-90 euros. In a property there are kilometres of them, well, just do the math…

But is it just an economic issue? 

B.O.: The biggest obstacle is money. But not only that. There is also the issue of time.

What do you mean?

B.O.: The rush to make money. The young business class in the area is not oriented towards wine production, but towards greenhouse agriculture. To plant a vineyard and see the first results, you need three years. Not to mention the olive tree and the carob tree. In a greenhouse, for tomatoes, 3 months are enough. Today, the concept of waiting no longer exists! Oggi il concetto dell’attesa non esiste più, il saper aspettare.

Has this led to the abandonment of agricultural architectural structures?

B.O.: In part, yes. However, we are trying to recover what can be recovered. Regarding the palmento, some of them have actually been restored, but many structures remain in a state of abandonment. For now, 20% of the structures have been put back into operation. Some palmenti have been converted to other functions, still connected to wine, such as tourist facilities, tasting rooms or museums, but often these renovations have led to the loss of their original agricultural functionality. 

Like that of a winery?

B.O.: Yes, even if some companies, like Arianna, Cos, and other wineries in Vittoria, are trying to bring this heritage back to life. The world of wine is more sensitive to this type of direction, because it’s more accustomed to waiting and has a different sensitivity to the passing of time. And then it is more tied to the suggestions of tradition because the great narrative of wine values the poetry of old buildings where the harvested grapes were processed. Wine tells stories. Certainly, a tomato or a cucumber - even if they represent driving sectors of the economy - a little less so. For this reason, we develop and promote this growing area and its wine, the Frappato di Vittoria and the Nero d'Avola, so that they can become more recognized and appreciated--tools to create an architecture with a unique character. Il vino racconta delle storie. Un pomodoro, o un cetriolo, un po’ meno.