Cascina Torchiera is a historic

cascina a corte In Italy, cascina a corte (; plural: cascine a corte) refers to a type of rural building traditional of the Po Valley, especially of Lombardy and of some areas of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna. Also known as ''cascine lombarde'' or just ''cascine ...

(farmhouse) of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, dating back to the first half of the 14th century.Breve storia della Cascina Torchiera
It is located in zone 8 of Milan, adjacent to the Maggiore cemetery, in the Musocco/ Garegnano district, Alberto di Monte,
Torchiera e Merlata: due cascine milanesi nell'Expo della postmodernità
, pp. 27-39 and is one of the oldest surviving ''cascine'' within the city boundaries. The cascina is formally the property of the Comune di Milano city administration and has been a

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

self-managed social centre since the 1992. It is known as Cascina Autogestita Torchiera SenzAcqua.

History

The cascina has undergone several transformations over the centuries. The original building dates back to the 14th century; at the time, it was located in the middle of a large rural area. The name "torchiera" may be a reference to an

olive press Olive oil extraction is the process of extracting the oil present in olive drupes, known as olive oil. Olive oil is produced in the mesocarp cells, and stored in a particular type of vacuole called a lipo vacuole, i.e., every cell conta ...

("torchio" in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

) or the manufacturing of

hemp rope Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

("torcitura"). The '' Mailänder Kataster'' (an 18th-century

cadastre A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented gra ...

of Milan), reports cultivations of

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

and

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...

in the land that surrounded the cascina. Historically a property of the clergy of the nearby

Garegnano Charterhouse Garegnano Charterhouse, also known as Milan Charterhouse ( it, Certosa di Garegnano or ''Certosa di Milano'') is a former Carthusian monastery, or charterhouse, located on the outskirts of Milan, Italy, in the Garegnano district. It now houses a ...

, the cascina and the surrounding land (including the Maggiore cemetery) were ceded to the Comune di Milano in 1888. Part of the building was demolished to create a large open space at the entrance of the cemetery; as a consequence, the cascina is now L-shaped, having lost the original square-yarded structure that is typical of cascine. After becoming a property of the Comune, the cascina was adapted for diverse uses such as

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...

workshops, small shops, and a local seat of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

; nevertheless, it was never properly maintained and restored. Eventually there was structural subsidence and a large portion of the roof collapsed.

Social centre

In 1992, the cascina was

and turned into an

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

anti-racist Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

and

anti-authoritarian Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as "a form of social organisation characterised by submission to authority", "favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom" an ...

social centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

, known as Centro Sociale Autogestito Torchiera. The center remains active in 2020, despite sporadic attempts by Milan's administration to dismantle it or to sell the property.In vendita gli immobili del comune
Soon after the occupation, the city administration blocked the water supply, leading the centre to become known as Cascina Autogestita Torchiera SenzAcqua, where "SenzAcqua" means "WithoutWater". In 1999, author

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. I ...

prevented an eviction by calling the mayor. Volunteers from the social centre have been restoring the building since 1994. Social activities in the cascina include theatre performances, gymnastic workshops, book presentations, musical events and

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

classes for foreigners. In the summer of 2020, the city of Milan decided to sell off 25 unused assets, one of which was the social centre. This had also been considered in 2011. In response, the centre organised a public assembly in early September 2020 in support of autonomous spaces in Milan such as itself, Ri-Make, Lambretta and SOS Fornace Rho. During the

covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the social centre joined the " brigate di solidarietà popolare", providing food and first need goods to the families of the neighborhood.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Squats in Italy Buildings and structures in Milan Infoshops Music venues in Italy