Masseria Tarulli-Frasca
The rural hamlet of Pozzo Mellitto is a place which seems suspended in time. The name originates from a well of fresh water fed by an underwater spring which provided water for people and animals for centuries. In the past, the families of Grumo, as in many parts of the region, lived their lives in a fragile balance with nature. Every drop of rain was precious and collected in large stone cisterns dug into the rock, the so-called Piscine (pools). Only the most fortunate possessed private cisterns and for everyone else the well in Mellitto was the heart of a community who had learned to live with little but with gratitude. This building was erected at the end of the 17th century. Imposing and severe, it was built with light stone and thick walls and took its names from the two families who had owned it.
The raised ground floor with vaulted ceilings and windows looking out over the fields was where the owners resided; below were the stables and sties where the peasants worked amid the warm breath of the animals and the pungent smell of hay. A small chapel stands next to the farmhouse, the inscription 1780 confirming the date of its construction. In this simple way of life everything had value, even the blessing of clean, fresh water. Today the well is no longer visible, covered by cement slabs at the end of the 1940s, thus closing a chapter of history. The ruined farmhouse still stands among the uncultivated fields and weeds, a distant memory of what it once was. Its cracked walls, the bare chapel and the empty windows tell of a time when hard work meant hope. This farmhouse lives on as a memory, the stones bearing an echo of a time when life was simple, hard but very real.