The name Il Pignocco (a big Pine) derives from an ancient and gigantic pine that was situated nearby the farmhouse. The tree was so stately that sailors used it as a point of reference. The circumference of the trunk was larger than the height of a man. Photos of the huge tree are now in the reception of the country house.
History
The origin of the name "Il Pignocco"
Lucus Pisaurensis
Il Pignocco Country House is situated on top of the hill of St. Pietro in Calibano, in the heart of the Lucus Pisaurensis, a wood consecrated to the divinities by the ancient Romans. Here they made offerings and sacrifices when asking for intervention of the Gods, or to thank them for received benefits.
In 1737 Annibale degli Abbati Olivieri, owner at the time of the farmhouse, announced that he had discovered this sacred place, as he found inscriptions, metal and terracotta votive offerings and coin offerings dating from the most ancient to the Roman times.
The sanctuary was connected with female Gods of Health and particularly with the cult of waters. As a matter of fact the inhabitants of the area still remember some little fountains, where they used to draw water, because it was particularly good.
The farmhouse
At the beginning of the 20th Century the guests house was a manor where a rich owner spent his time after having left his city house: the owner came to the countryside to supervise the sharecroppers in the periods of most hard work. In 1953 the rural house was sold to Francesco Gallinelli, our grandfather.
During those years the restoration started. The room that the sharecropper used as stall was restored and a wing of the construction was built for the animals and a barn was built too. Our grandfather sought ancient worth pieces that could match with the house: an ancient and elegant fireplace embellished the living-room, rose windows and a fountain created an original and pleasant effect.
The private chapel
On the side of the rural house, separated by a small arc, the private chapel entitled to St. Gaetano rises. The private church was open to the public cult. Two windows opened at body height remember that, in the past, it was not allowed to the servants of the house to enter the chapel and listen to the religious function. They had to follow the ritual from the two small windows placed on the facade.
And it is not accidental that this church, still consecrated and probably previous to the building of the house, rose few meters away from the ground that housed the sacred sanctuary of the first Roman community in the city of Pesaro.
