Cascina Torchiera is a historic

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

(farmhouse) of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, 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 wer ...

self-managed social centre A self-managed social center, also known as an autonomous social center, is a self-organized community center in which Anti-authoritarianism, anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venue ...

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 olive oil present in olive drupes. Olive oil is produced in the mesocarp cells, and stored in a particular type of vacuole called a lipo vacuole, i.e., every cell contains a tiny oliv ...

("torchio" in

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

) or the manufacturing of

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

("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 of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented graphically in ...

of Milan), reports cultivations of

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

and

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

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 ( 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 community of Capuchin Fr ...

, 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 pr ...

workshops, small shops, and a local seat of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

; 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 op ...

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 delibera ...

and

anti-authoritarian Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism. Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil liberties. Sometimes the term is used interchangeably with anarchism, an ideology which entails opposing a ...

social centre A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

, 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. ...

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 (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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