SHARRYLAND
Montauro - The grange of Sant'Anna
The vestiges of a great past against the backdrop of the beautiful nature of the Orange Coast
Where is
The function of certain large fortified farms
Grangia is a term of French origin that in the context of a monastery denotes a building intended to store foodstuffs, primarily grains, but also oil, wine and any other storage product. A warehouse, essentially, that when outside the monastic circle for understandable reasons could be fortified. What can be seen on the high ground on the border between Montauro and Gasperina are precisely the ruins of the grange of Sant'Anna, dependent on the powerful Carthusian monastery of Serra San Bruno.
A rural community dependent on a monastery
The grandeur of these ruins makes it clear that the term 'grange' rather than a single building stood for a fortified complex necessarily governed by a small community. In addition to the religious dependent on the Carthusian monastery, the grange also housed wage earners, peasants, shepherds, small artisans-in short, all the figures functional to the management of the surrounding estates. A typical expression of the medieval age, the grange of Sant'Anna, erected around the year 1000, maintained its functions until the catastrophic earthquake of 1783.
Along of the ancient road that led to the Charterhouse of San Bruno
Ruins, it is well known, can be picturesque, and these in particular are so because they are clearly legible: a large walled quadrangle, with an entrance facing the mountain and probably equipped with a drawbridge, plus four square-based towers at the apexes. Accentuating the suggestion of the ruins is the setting of centuries-old olive trees and the view of the arc of the Gulf of Squillace. Nearby, a surviving section of the paved road, of Roman layout, that once connected it to Gasperina.
In a fresco, the grange as it was in its golden years
An image of the grange of St. Anne in its heyday can be gleaned from a fresco in the Mother Church of Montauro, near the inner portal of the church, on the left side, depicting the 1753 procession for the arrival of the relics of the patron saint St. Pantaleon from Naples.
Grangia, a term that refers to the concept of a community granary.
The etymon of the term grangia deserves a note. The original voice is Latin - granum hence granarium, granary - but it has come down to us through adaptation from the French language - grange, whence today's grangia - due to the fact that it was the transalpine order of Cistercians that first adopted it.
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