Details
The Vignassa is a charming south-facing stone long house dating from the 17th Century. It is tucked away in secluded mature sweet-chestnut woodland at the end of a private gravel road overlooking the Waldensian village of Torre Pellice in Piedmont in Northern Italy.
The house is set in two and a half acres of its own land and although it is only 6 minutes from the centre of the village it offers peace and tranquillity without total isolation.
We have two twin/double rooms available for guests. One is on the first floor with access from the balcony and the other is situated on the ground floor with access directly from the courtyard. Both rooms have private entrances and their own en-suite shower room.
We also have a guests' lounge with a log fire, sofa and arm-chairs, tea and coffee making facilities and an extensive library of English books. Our substantial breakfasts are usually served in the Guest's lounge or when the weather is fine, outside in the garden.
Its history
The house is called La Vignassa (pronounced Vin Yassa with the accent on yassa) a term used to denote low quality grapes which must have once been grown in the region. It is a mountain long house and is built on hillside at 730 metres overlooking the village of Torre Pellice. Building started at the eastern end somewhere around the end of the 1500s and progressed over the years with the most recent rooms being added at the western end around the late 1800s. Most parts of the building in the middle date from the 18th Century. Pottery and coin finds have made it possible to date most of the rooms fairly accurately. There are a total of 22 rooms though nearly all were used for agricultural purposes, byres, haylofts etc.
During the Waldensian persecutions many of the houses seem to have been pulled down intentionally by the departing residents, to prevent them from being used by the Catholics. The Vignassa shows signs of some rebuilding especially of the upper parts of the buildings explained possibly by the fact that a couple of the rooms at the eastern end show signs of intense fires.
There is a separate building dated 1681 in front of the main house which is unusual in that the original dividing wall has been demolished to form one large room with a chimney. Most of the other habitable rooms were small, to conserve heat.
When we bought the house there was also another building with 4 rooms where we now park our car. Unfortunately the walls were in such a bad state that pulling it down was the only option. Finds in the lower part of these buildings dated it to the early 1600s. All the terraces below the house were made using the stones from this building.
Since before the times of the persecutions right up to the end of the 1800s the house was lived in by the Eynard family and research in the archives has put names if not faces to most of them.
The area surrounding the Vignassa was once a wine growing area and all the terraces which are now thickly wooded were once well-tended vineyards and fields. In fact originally the name Vignassa referred to the whole area and only in the 1700s did the name settle on the house alone.
Most of the Pellice valley is littered with abandoned houses some extremely old. The inhabitants for one reason or another, attracted perhaps by the industrial development of the valley floor or maybe forced by the poverty in which the lived, left the mountains in search of new lives elsewhere. The houses fell into disrepair and the fields and terraces reverted to woodland. At the Vignassa we have cut down the brambles, cleared some of the terraces and repaired walls and terraces. We have also tried to keep the external facade of the house as near to its original appearance as possible trying to harmonize the requirements of modernity with the wish to preserve the historical character of the place.
Booking
Website www.lavignassa.it
Book now b&b La Vignassa, or ask for more informationi
Rooms
Double Rooms
- 2 rooms con queste caratteristiche;
- Private bathroom;
- It's possible to have (if available) 1 extra bed for this room for 15.00 € per night;
| Places Available | Min Price | Max Price | ||
 | 22.50€ | 30.00€ | ||
 | 45.00€ | 45.00€ | ||
- Extra Info:
One room is located on the first floor with access from the balcony and the other is situated on the ground floor with access directly from the courtyard. The rooms have two single beds which if required can be pushed together to make a double. Both rooms have an en-suite shower room, spacious wardrobe and small chest of drawers. There is also a hairdryer. If required an additional bed can be put in the room.
Map
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How to get there
Sul sito nella pagina http://www.lavignassa.it/it_regione_arrivare_vignassa.htm# trovate la mappa
Map on web site http://www.lavignassa.it/en_regione_arrivare_vignassa.htm
C'è una sola strada che conduce a Torre Pellice, la SP 161. Una volta arrivati al paese dovete attraversarlo fino a sorpassare il distributore di benzina della Esso sulla vostra sinistra. Proseguendo poi verso l'estremità opposta del centro abitato troverete un distributore della Tamoil sulla vostra destra.
Svoltate alla prima strada a destra dopo il distributore della Tamoil, che è via Pietro Valdo (non ben segnalata). Al segnale di stop (troverete di fronte a voi la statua di Arnaud) attraversate l'incrocio di fronte a voi fino ad arrivare in via D'Azeglio. Quando arriverete alla fine della strada (alla vostra destra c'è una scuola con biblioteca annessa) girate a sinistra in viale Dante. Proseguite attraversando gli incroci con via Deportati e Internati, via A. Manzoni e via Willy Jervis sulla vostra sinistra. Subito dopo via Willy Jervis la strada gira nettamente a destra e cambia nome in via Giordanotti; qui comincia a salire. Davanti a voi la strada si biforca in via Miravalle, a destra, e via Giordanotti, a sinistra. Girate a sinistra proseguendo in via Giordanotti. La strada ora gira a destra e attraversa un campo sulla destra ed un ruscello sulla destra, dopodichè gira a sinistra incrociando una piccola strada sulla destra e cambia nome in via Tagliaretto, attraversa il ruscello e si dirige diritto verso una casa con l'indicazione Crespo N°. 5. Subito di fronte alla casa la strada gira a destra e poi a sinistra; attraversate una strada sterrata che taglia attraverso i campi alla vostra sinistra; mantenetevi sull'asfalto e 100 m. dopo la strada sterrata prendete la prima strada a destra. Preparatevi ad affrontare una strada stretta e ripida; la curva normalmente richiede un paio di manovre. Poco dopo la curva l'asfalto termina ed il fondo diventa sterrato.
Pochi metri dopo la fine del tratto asfaltato la strada piega a sinistra e poi a destra, e scende in direzione di una grande casa con porte in metallo. La strada passa a sinistra di questa casa, lasciando un antico granaio di pietra sulla vostra sinistra, dopodichè inizia a curvare verso destra sorpassando un parcheggio coperto sulla vostra sinistra ed attraversando un piccolo ponte in pietra (prendete la curva larga!!). A questo punto la strada si biforca; un ramo piega nettamente in alto a sinistra, un sentiero va verso il basso a destra, il ramo giusto è quello centrale, dove trovate un segnale "Vietato l'ingresso" attaccato ad un albero.
