The caves: the ice houses and the neviere

The elders of Controguerra tell that once upon a time a network of tunnels connected all the houses in the old town, and that these underground passages were reopened "in time of war" to hide food, weapons and wanted people. Behind the "legend", there is a true fact: all the old houses in the historic center had caves, that is neviere or ice houses, sometimes very deep.

The caves are, essentially, real natural "refrigerators", which were used to preserve food during the year. In fact, the cold and underground environment, which was sometimes also filled with compacted snow, guaranteed good food preservation, preventing the rapid deterioration of food products, in times when there were no preservatives or electrically refrigerated environments.

In the past, caves were found in all houses, not only in village houses, but also in rural houses. Particularly large were the caves in the Riomoro district, dug for meters in the living tuff, still traceable today in some ridges of the area. It seems that some caves in the Riomoro district were so large that they were used by several family groups.

In the aforementioned legend there is also another element of truth: during the Second World War, foodstuffs were hidden in the caves and sometimes, some witnesses recall, even people. Usually the girls took refuge there, when they didn't have time to flee to the fields, for fear that they might be harassed by passing soldiers. The entrance to the cave was hidden in the most disparate ways; sometimes with simple drapes or furniture, other times with elaborate trapdoors.

Some counter-war houses still retain suggestive well-preserved caves, which most of the time continue to be used for the ancient purpose for which they were dug: to preserve food.