Our History
The old farm house of the Agriturismo Cossignani dates back to the 18th Century when it was a small building, perhaps a pigeon’s house with a viewing tower on the west side. From here it was possible to survey a large portion of the landscape from Ripatransone all the way to the coast along the valley of the Menocchia river. The criss crossed web of elevated houses and small high-towns were a valuable tool of Pontiff State to keep control of the local area.
Later on, around the 19th Century, the main structure of the tower was extended to accomodate the family who was cultivating the surrounding land. At this stage the house begins to look more like the traditional 1800’s South Marche farm house, which had a ground floorstable for the animals, and first floor living space with kitchen, living room and bedrooms, and the top floor still a pigeon house.
With the end of the Pontiff State at the end of the 19th Century, the situation for the house changed too. The building and the land around was trasferred to the new Italian State that went on to sell it to several families from Montefiore: De Sgrilli, Giovanetti, De Vecchis etc.
After all this time the rich landowner families didn’t have much experience running farms any more and so started to create a net of collaborations, in which the land owner subcontracted pieces of the land to other farmers keeping for himself half of the produce and leaving the rest to the farmers. This kind of collaboration, called Mezzadria, was very popular in Le Marche for the entire 800th century till the first half of the 1900’s when Italian industrialization took most of the workers away from the countryside as they became factory workers in Piemonte, Lombardia or even abroad.
In the 1959 the Cossignani family, following the Mezzadria tradition, bought the farm house and the land around it from the Giovanetti family. That was the time when a new generation of land owners who returned to the countryside after industralization began to invest in agriculture. The Agriturismo is currently owened by the Cossignani family for two generations.
Later on, around the 19th Century, the main structure of the tower was extended to accomodate the family who was cultivating the surrounding land. At this stage the house begins to look more like the traditional 1800’s South Marche farm house, which had a ground floorstable for the animals, and first floor living space with kitchen, living room and bedrooms, and the top floor still a pigeon house.
With the end of the Pontiff State at the end of the 19th Century, the situation for the house changed too. The building and the land around was trasferred to the new Italian State that went on to sell it to several families from Montefiore: De Sgrilli, Giovanetti, De Vecchis etc.
After all this time the rich landowner families didn’t have much experience running farms any more and so started to create a net of collaborations, in which the land owner subcontracted pieces of the land to other farmers keeping for himself half of the produce and leaving the rest to the farmers. This kind of collaboration, called Mezzadria, was very popular in Le Marche for the entire 800th century till the first half of the 1900’s when Italian industrialization took most of the workers away from the countryside as they became factory workers in Piemonte, Lombardia or even abroad.
In the 1959 the Cossignani family, following the Mezzadria tradition, bought the farm house and the land around it from the Giovanetti family. That was the time when a new generation of land owners who returned to the countryside after industralization began to invest in agriculture. The Agriturismo is currently owened by the Cossignani family for two generations.