Nestled along a ridge between the municipalities of Breggia and Castel San Pietro, the Pianspessa area extends over 15 hectares, making it one of the most significant and valuable rural landscapes in the Muggio Valley and in the entire region. Its wealth of natural, architectural and ethnographic features, from nationally important dry meadows to the nevèra, the roccolo, the rural hamlet, vegetable gardens and the historic fountain, creates a landscape that is unique in both quality and variety.
The Pianspessa Foundation has developed a landscape project aimed at preserving the agricultural vocation of the area while enhancing its architectural, natural and scenic elements for the benefit of the community. Natural features will be restored and protected over the long term. Once renovated, the buildings will host a new dairy, cellars, a welcome and tasting area, educational spaces, guest accommodations and a garden.
The rural complex
At 990 meters, on the lower part of the ridge, stands the main settlement: the traditional farmhouse inhabited by sharecroppers, flanked by a nevèra and a stable. With its U-shaped layout, internal passageway and balanced volumes, the complex reflects 18th-century architectural knowledge. It is attributed to Simone Cantoni (1739–1818), a precursor of Lombard Neoclassicism, and represents a refined synthesis between stately 18th-century architecture and rural building traditions.
Cantoni’s innovative approach combines typical mountain materials, stone walls, piode roofs, with elements rooted in urban and bourgeois architecture such as bricks, plaster and granite. Rural structures like the nevèra, the drying tower (graa), the cistern, vegetable gardens and the apiary are all integrated into a forward-thinking architectural complex influenced by cultural models such as the “villa di delizia”.
The nevèra
Slightly detached from the rural nucleus, the nevèra has an internal diameter of about 3 meters and a height of 5 meters. It features plastered walls and a false vault topped with a double-pitch piode roof. Surrounded by a ring of century-old maples, likely planted around 1770, the nevèra was traditionally filled with compact snow in March to keep milk and butter cool during the summer months.
The roccolo
At 1,050 meters, a roccolo with highly original architecture marks the western boundary of the landscape project. Its curved façade, unique in the Muggio Valley, showcases the architect’s attention to both aesthetics and function: the shape allowed the bird-catcher to enjoy a wider view of the circular area in front of the tower while giving the structure an elegant appearance. Built above the terraced fields on the southern slope, the roccolo helped attract and capture migrating birds to protect the crops. Although the double row of trees that once framed the elliptical catching area has disappeared, part of the surrounding vegetation and the retaining wall supporting the terrace still remain.
Dry-stone walls
The more than 400 linear meters of dry-stone walls across Pianspessa are silent witnesses to the harmonious relationship between people and nature. Whether bold retaining structures or low walls gently shaping the slopes, they recall the age-old need to “tame” steep terrain by building terraces for cultivation.
The project and planned interventions.
