Last Updated December 15,, 2023
Pro Loco Michele Caputo
Moschiano (Av)
Non-political, non-profit cultural and social association
Capomoschiano district
Rione Croce
With its sections of Tuoro, Pistiello, Vallone and Chiaio it is perhaps the oldest part of Moschiano.
It is near the Croce district (in the Carrata area not far from the Pistiello going up the hill towards the "Cantaro") that a tomb from the Samnite period was found on 30 December 1957 with human bones, a dagger and a bronze patera. (See Prof Pasquale Moschiano's book The Sanctuary of the Madonna della Carita' – 1972)
Furthermore, during the sewer works in 1977, a few meters under the road surface not far from the current pharmacy, other tombs were found with bones but no objects inside them.
It is also known that where there are now houses, in via E. De Filippo (formerly via Pistiello), along the road that leads to the "Cantaro" there was a church whose ruins (in particular what must have perhaps been a bell tower) they could be noticed until the early 1960s. We could hypothesize that perhaps the church was positioned from north to south and that perhaps the tombs found under the road surface were part of it (perhaps from an adjacent cemetery). But this is just our hypothesis.
Another church (perhaps a private chapel) existed almost in front of today's church of the Immaculate on the east side of today's Piazzetta Anna Laura Palumbieri (once "Stradone"). It is now a private home. In the 1980s Donna Ninuccia Caputo (sister of Michele Caputo) gave the parish priest Don Salvatore Pierro the front of an altar which she said was part of "one of her chapels". Perhaps he was referring precisely to this chapel. Note: Andrea Romano in his work “Angelo Mozzillo: List of works with annotations” lists by Mozzillo himself, in addition to the 1794 canvas that was once on the ceiling of the Church of the Immacolata in the Croce district, also a “Pieta” on the main altar of a “Church of S. Maria della Pieta'” and comments that this church does not exist (in fact there is no such church in Moschiano today). If it is true that he was referring to Moschiano (the reference could be to the church of the Pieta' of FonteNovella) we wonder if by chance this church was not one of the two that we have mentioned, or the painting was not on the main altar but simply on side of one of the other churches in Moschiano. Although we don't think it's plausible, it could be possible that the reference is to the Deposition Canvas that was once to the left of the high altar in the Body of Christ church and which was stolen in the 1970s. From the vague memories we have of it, however, the pictorial style seemed different.
In the 1980s the front donated by Donna Ninuccia was set by Don Salvatore between 6 columns under the altar facing the people of the church of the Body of Christ in the square when this replaced the wooden one made by the carpenter Gilberto Manfredi which had been there since 60's. The latter was then taken to the Charity and remained there until the beginning of 2000.
The center of the district is the church of the Immaculate Conception on the left side of the main road Via U. Nobile formerly Via D'Avitaia which overlooks a large churchyard (the so-called "chapel").
Before the coverage of “vallone” “la cappella” was a little larger and served as a meeting point for all the kids in the neighborhood throughout the year. It is bordered to the north and west by a not too high wall on which the boys once climbed and sat, to the east by the main entrance of the church and to the south (along the main street of Moschiano) by a series of columns in living stone that go in a growing shape from west to east about one meter high. Unfortunately, only two of the original ones remain. The others have been destroyed and some have been replaced over the years by more mundane concrete columns. The boys of the past enjoyed jumping astride these columns.
In the past, before the ground was cemented, the kids used this space almost like a playground. It was the arena for various "seasonal" games (including the game of colored marbles (the "balls"), 'o "puzzo", the "buttons", the footballers' figurines (the marble entrance threshold of the church was a excellent game plan, etc.) or as a football field what we would nowadays call five-a-side football (but without limits of players per team).
On the wall of the bell tower along the road there is a marble aedicula with the figure of a woman with her head covered by a veil holding a book in her left hand and with her right hand on her chest. The origin of this aedicula or slab is not well known. It has been hypothesized that perhaps it was once part of some other religious building now destroyed. On the part of the bell tower that overlooks the churchyard (where the secondary door of the church is), after the restoration of the church in 1964, a Crucifix was placed which was previously located a hundred meters further south. We don't know about it. the origin but it could have been built and dedicated at the end of one of the many "Missions" that the Passionist Fathers (as evidenced by the heart in the center of the crucifix) used to carry out in our countries in previous centuries. Before moving it to the facade of the bell tower, the Crucifix was positioned on a concrete pedestal on the left side of the road coming from Lauro where it curves. Behind the Cross there was once a large garden of the Lallone family, half with flowers and the other half with cherry and hazelnut trees which extended up to the Vallone. Now there is only a small part of that garden and in its place there are houses. Near the Cross at the entrance to the Pistiello square there was once a public wrought iron fountain where the women of the neighborhood crowded together with various containers (the famous "conche") to draw water.
Before arriving at the bend on the right there was a row of large plane trees which made this piece of road characteristic also because looking up you could admire the locality "Monte" with its ancient ruined building and, when they were not there the leaves, you could see above it, the top of the bell tower of the Church of the Sanctuary of Charity.
Once upon a time the district began with the first houses that stood as soon as the locality "Tuoro" ended where there was a stone quarry called "Pretera" (now disused and with a house) and extended up to the locality Chiaio with the houses on both sides of the main road, while towards the north the houses of Pistiello, Vallone and Chiaio climbed up the rocks and the hill. On the right, towards the south, behind the houses that overlooked the street, almost nothing. Only gardens and vegetable gardens.
Starting from the 70s many new houses were built both in the Tuoro locality almost up to the border with the municipality of Diecici and to the south towards the lake also thanks to the construction of a variant to the state road built in the 70s which allowed the expansion not only of the Croce district but of all of Moschiano.
In the 1970s, as part of the modernization works in Moschiano, the valley that came from the “Ronnanio” locality and entered the main one (one of the “Regi Lagni”) and other valleys were “intombato” (i.e. covered by creating a road above and allowing the water to flow below).
The earthquake of 1980 and the various private initiatives greatly changed the architectural appearance of the Croce district (as well as that of the whole of Moschiano), causing it to lose its original characteristics. Many of the large doors that were at the entrance to the large residences with gardens inside them have disappeared, as have in some cases the residences themselves. For example, Michele Caputo's original house no longer exists with its characteristic staircase as soon as you entered the door and the "café" at street level where his house forced the road to narrow right in front of Vico Chiaio and where he he entertained people.
Even the Chiaio locality along the main road before arriving at the Piazza district has changed. It was once uninhabited with large green spaces to the right and left. Now there are houses and since the 1960s the elementary school named after Prof Antonio Arpaia. Here too, after the 1980 earthquake, old houses were demolished to widen the road and with some exceptions, almost nothing remains of the old arched doors. This was the price, perhaps high, that the Croce district paid over the years, perhaps the result of a distorted idea of progress but which often led us and leads us to destroy our historical memory.
Rione Piazza
The Piazza district extends from the Chiaio area up to a few hundred meters beyond Piazza IV Novembre going towards Santa Cristina.
The eastern limit is delimited by an ancient large terminal stone still visible today set in the wall of a private house along the road. Once upon a time it also marked the border between the parish of San Bartolomeo and Corpo di Cristo and that of Incoronata.
Thanks to the presence of the town hall, the parish church (the church of the Body of Christ) and various shops, the Piazza district could also be defined as the economic, political and social center of Moschiano.
Once upon a time the road coming from Chiaio was a succession of shops. We started from where the road narrowed due to the houses and on the left there is the “da Tonino” barbershop. Originally located a few hundred meters further on, the “Andrea's Salon or Barber” as it was once known was made known in the 70s throughout the valley by his eldest son, the dearest "Mast'Aniello" until he emigrated to America. For years it was the place where many barbers, many of them now far from Moschiano, trained under the expert guidance of Andrea. We remember for everyone, Fiore Santoro and Marino Carbone in America and Silvio Dalia in Bressanone. Tonino and his children still continue the work of their father and brother with mastery. Right next to the barber shop there was the post office managed for years first by the Nappi family and then by their son-in-law Mario Cuozzo. It was previously in the Croce district and then moved to Capomoschiano towards the end of the 1970s. A little further up there was Flora's delicatessen and just opposite Don Antonio Borrasi's dried fruit processing factory. Since the 1970s, immediately after the entrance gate to the factory, there has been the butcher's shop "Il Regno delle Carni", a fiefdom of the dearest Ettore Santaniello. Opposite Ettore there was also the very small cobbler's shop of Giacchino which everyone remembers with affection and how in his old age he also took care of his brother Antonio and next to him the tailor Enrico Dalia (known as "Ricuccio"). The Pacia pharmacy (which later moved to Chiaio) was further along followed by the tailor Michele. Even further ahead and still on the same side of the road you could find in sequence a very small haberdashery/tailor shop run by Luisa “Luisella” and Giovanni (the Marshal) Bocache and another by the sisters Mariuccia (“a zi maesta”) and Pippinella and immediately after Enzo Squitieri's shoe workshop. On the right in a doorway is the artisan workshop of Livio Volino, a master in preparing barrels for wine and further on is the doorway of "donna Chitina" where in rooms overlooking a large courtyard he ran an after-school club. On the left, where there is now a small square, there were houses that once housed the Michele Caputo cultural club, a butcher's shop, a bar, the garage of 'Tatonno' known as "o' Fisicotto". However for Tatonno there was much more business at the time fixing bicycles than fixing cars. In front of them was a small door from which you could access an oil mill and then a shop that sold bread, salt, tobacco and other foodstuffs. All managed by the Volino family first and then Fiore. Who doesn't remember Tuccella and Cecchina?
Then there was the Square. Definitely not great especially until the 60s. On the left the church with the gravestones of the fallen of the great wars on the walls and further up, starting from 1973, a plaque recalling how Mrs. Antonia Vivenzio had promoted among our emigrants in Venezuela the electrification of the church bells and had contributed to the installation on the upper level of the clock that still ticks the hours. “Horas non numero nisi serenas” says the plaque on the bell tower. “I only list happy hours.” Until the mid-sixties, right next to the church in front of the rectory there was an old house which was the site of the 'Chiarina' bar. It was demolished to widen the square, unfortunately together with the 'fountains' which were located a little further up to the right, in the place of the same name and which for about a century had supplied the district with running drinking water. In their place the town hall was built which in turn was demolished in the 1990s and rebuilt further up in a modern form. What remains of the original fountains (including two large stones carved with the symbols of Moschiano) can today be admired in the small square built on the left side of the church in place of the butcher's shop, bar and garage we mentioned.
On the other side of the square there was another barber Antonio Marotta who also acted as a "newsagent with home delivery". Right where the "Cupa ra Chianca" or via Cimitero begins (now via Prof Carmine Pacia) and almost to counterbalance the entrance to the church, there was the pastry shop at 'Donna Filomena', made famous above all by the desserts prepared by her son Michele Buonaiuto. Following is "Villa Carolina" owned by Carmine Pacia, a wood industrialist of the same name as Prof. Carmine Pacia but not connected to its large balcony on the entrance gate overlooking the square.
Continuing towards Capomoschiano you come across the Giordano butcher's shop on the left, once managed by "Peppe o chianchiere" and then by his nephew Filippo (known as "Filippiello") who everyone remembers sitting in front of his shop intent on solving crosswords waiting for customers. from time to time to exchange a few words or jokes with “Tatonno o tailor” (Antonio Aschettino) who had a shop opposite and who was also sitting in the doorway intent on sewing. A few meters further on, the salt and tobacco shop of "Laurettella" specialized at the time in embroidery tools and cotton.
Further up the road narrowed again immediately after the doors of the Borrasi buildings on one side and Moschiano on the other, but immediately afterwards we could (and still can) find on the left the "Bar Sport" set up by Milardo Russo in 1960 but made famous by his son Minuccio with his delicious and inimitable ice creams and the freshest granita. This was the meeting place for countless young people in the 1970s when they met for a chat, a game of cards, enjoyed ice cream, endless discussions about football matches and watched the Sunday strolls. The bar, which over the years has moved from one side of the street to the other and vice versa, is now managed by his son Salvatore, but the ice cream and granita continue to be at the top.
On the left there is "Vico San Rocco" so called because at its entrance there was a small chapel with the effigy of San Rocco. After the 1980 earthquake the chapel, perhaps a little too quickly, was demolished also to widen the road and now the effigy of San Rocco is attached to the wall of a house. Not far from the beginning of the alley in a door on the right there was once the Vittorio Settembre oil mill also known as "Baffone".
Continuing towards Capomoschiano, a few tens of meters further up on the right at the end of the Suor Angiola della Pace alley there was and still is the entrance to the Pacia dried fruit industry. It is the only one left in Moschiano and still continues to employ a few dozen people and to process and export local products such as chestnuts, hazelnuts, cherries and more all over the world. At the beginning of the alley there was once the Moschiano sortery.
The neighborhood ends some ten meters further up with Giovanni Mazzocca's delicatessen and immediately after on the right you can see the large stone in the wall that marks the border. We are in Capomoschiano.
Like the other two districts of Moschiano in recent decades, this one too has "evolved" and extended both towards the North (the Mount and the other hills) and towards the South (the variant), losing its historical architectural identity but also the activities artisanal and industrial that characterized it. There are no longer any cobblers, shoemakers or haberdashers. Bicycles can no longer be fixed and tailors have practically disappeared.
Where there were "sunken rooms and/or gardens, new roads have been opened to connect the new homes and at the same time create "escape routes".
In the name of progress, perhaps what was the soul of the village has been destroyed. We hope that these memories will at least partially mitigate the losses suffered.
Capomoschiano district