Nardò, Villa Scrasceta, Salento, by Davide Mengoli

The Scrasceta villa in Nardò, known by the locals as "La casa di li pupi" is a valuable testimony of late Baroque architecture of an elegant residence. The villa, intended as a palace and gardens, is located about three kilometers from Nardò, in what was once called the Imperial fiefdom, exempt from paying feudal tithes. Surrounded by still productive agricultural land.
It is in fact a monument protected by the Super-intendency of Puglia “as it constitutes a valuable testimony of late Baroque architecture and stately home linked to the agricultural activity and socio-economic structures of the Salento area in the eighteenth centuries - XIX.

At the end of the seventeenth century, the Saracen incursions had ceased and it became fashionable to spend the summer season in rural residences, the rich aristocracy of Salento built several villas in the most fertile country estates, initially well separated from the colonists' houses. The only meeting point remained unequivocally the chapel, almost always present, where mass was celebrated on Sunday. It had an elegant entrance, from the street, with the famous avenue framed by a balustrade that supported curious statues of half-length men in funny attitudes, playing music instruments, others with a barrel on the shoulders, a rifle over the shoulder, with a slice of melon, with a glass in one hand and a jar in the other and many more happy faces.
On the upper floor, the musical element was strongly strengthened by the presence on the main elevation of a loggia with balustrade-choir depicting seven small dancers.
A baroque well on which the date 1746 is reported - and then again, the garden, perfectly symmetrical and carefully designed.

In this context, the servants house, with the stables and the other rooms remain "hidden" on the left of the entrance to the estate, bordering the road.
The chapel, built by Ignazio Vedesca and Angelo Preite in 1778 and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Immaculate.
From the documents kept in the bishop's archive of Nardò we know that in 1748 the estate was sold
to Don Saverio Giaccari who sold it the following year to Baron Francesco Personè. The Personè family retained ownership until the second decade of the twentieth century but, after changing the historical fashions and conditions of the area, the villa was soon abandoned. Time and neglect did the rest: the church was desecrated, the funny statues of the avenue and even the precious balustrade in the room on the upper floor were stolen.

Villa Scrasceta is therefore in Salento one of the rare eighteenth-century examples of a rural villa with an adjoining garden.
Villa Scrasceta, like many others throughout the Salento region were neglected, and finally completely abandoned. Pantaleo Fonte bought it in the fascist era. So it is still today, silent in the midst of vines awaiting a restoration that tells the story of its ancient splendor.

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