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PROPEZZANO Propezzano marks the south-eastern extremity of the borough of Montegallo and is made up of some small hamlets, the most important of which is called Cornaloni. Church of Madonna delle grazie In the higher part of this aggregation the XVIII century little church of the Madonna delle Grazie rises up: it has a notable linteled portal which carries the inscription CONCEPTA EST B(eata) MARIA EX PROGENIE/17 DAVID 57 (the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived by the progeny of David 1757). A small aedicula decorated with bas-relief and with the personification of the sun and the moon surmounts the lintel. Church of San Vito
Tower-Houses Continuing along the old road you meet a formidable group of very old tower houses, now completely abandoned and overgrown by brambles and reduced to a disconcertingly derelict state. One of these, observed from a distance, is made up of a towered body on a rectangular floor plan set on a solid base slope which acts as support to the adjoining lower building which was added at a later date on the site of a pre-existing building. The slope of the tower body is distinguishable from the adjacent building work because it forms a connecting angle with it, but also because of the marked irregularity of the ashlars, the faces of which are cursorily worked and exalt in a plasticised way the building material and give the impression that the building is founded on a solid block of living rock. The raised body, structured over two storeys with a loft at the top, stands out thanks to its compact and homogenous building work, perfectly executed. At the top there is a simple projecting string-course along which a continuous row of triangular dove house compartments run, a fashion seen in many old tower house dove houses and into whose typology our tower house fits. The third floor is marked by an elegant, carefully moulded cornice and is trilithic with a moulded lintel at the top. At the sides of the windows three of the four original wrought iron storks can be seen, with cross-shaped terminations that support the transverse wooden boards on which the washing was hung out to dry. On the side of the slope, the two lower floors are picked out by two openings: at the top, a trilithic-styled window with moulded lintel and window sill; at the bottom, a grill framed by four carefully smoothed and rounded off ashlars.The façade clearly shows that the right body is the result of reworking or extension at the back; if the original building had been extended, it would be deduced that it would have had a square or almost square floor plan, making it even more typical of the above-cited dove house towers.The loft window interrupts the succession of compartments in the dove house and was added at the time of this work. The window on the third floor is the original and its lintel shows the form of a bird flanked by two rosettes. The entrance portal, linked to the second floor, is protected by a rustic loggia with a covering formed by wooden boards. The extensive inscribed and decorated lintel is set on two brackets with the usual volute theme, enriched by a light moulding and by a floriform bas-relief. The inscription is incised in capital letters that are very carefully executed on two specially smoothed bands, and displays a charming singularity in its graphics and layout, such as the U in the shape of an upside down N or the quarter of the moon with a rippled filament placed at the end of the epigraph. There are two texts. The upper line reads O(m)NIA CON TEMPORE MODERATA DURANT (All things done in moderation endure in time). The lower line reads: NON NOBIS D(omi)NE SED NOMEN TUUM. The economy of space has forced a strong constriction in the second inscription, which is also found elsewhere in the area of Montegallo, and reads: Non nobis domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam. (Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name give glory; compare this with a lost inscription in Ascoli of the XVI century passed down by Frascarelli). The layout of the inscription as it is does not make sense nor is it grammatically correct. Evidently, the overall effect of the inscription and its ornamentation was enough for the person who commissioned it. The decoration that surmounts the lintel is very original: on two adjoining blocks, within semicircular fields, there are four extremely stylised emblems which perhaps allude to flowered plants. At the centre, surmounting the whole, a cross is seen flanked by two rosettes.Crossing the threshold you enter a vaulted room on a square floor plan, around whose walls an elegant stone internal sill runs, set on brackets. The construction characteristics of the building and its inscriptions suggest that it should be dated to the middle of the XVI century.The decorative details and its skilful structuring make this original building complex an extraordinary unicum of Italian civic architecture. If to this already notable building you then add the nearby buildings, if you consider that the same Propezzano also possesses an impressive tower house dated 1509, opened up by splendid single-lancet windows that still work as well as a wonderful XVII century house with an inscription that runs, exceptionally, along all the façade, you infer that this old villa possesses to all effects an extraordinary architectural heritage that needs to be valued and safeguarded urgently. Photos:
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