The Burchia towers

The Burchia towers

The Burchia towers were built between the 700s and 800s; however, there remains limited documented evidence about them.

In a map dated the 17th of December 1629 the two towers are not present. In another map of 1701, we can see two rustic annexes flank an original large dominical building. Therefore, the two present-day towers had not yet been built. The area was owned by the Countess Lucilla Gender Nesa Marchesa of the Obizzi who also owned a vast agricultural area used for both as meadows and crops. In the Austrian land register of 1834, the building was classified as a farmhouse. Two towers are shown placed side by side which means that they must have been built between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In 1877 the property passed from the land registry to the catastre, this means that the land was sold and ended its function as a home for farmers or settlers. At the start of the twentieth century, the Countess Fornasari became the owner of the building now named “holiday home”. A photo taken in 1929 allows us to admire the confirmation of the building with a tripartite elevation shaped by a central block flanked by two wings or towers, which the only remains of the original building. In the photo, we can observe how the towers were embellished with elaborate trachyte blocks and slender windows. In 1940 a fire destroyed a large part of the central body of the house, but parts of the towers remained standing. The tallest tower was left for a long time in a state of neglect, but it then converted into apartments for tourist. In turn, the other one, using part of the remains from the fire, was quickly converted for residential use.