News from Italy
The Postman’s House is recognised as a cultural asset
The house from the film Il Postino, where Pablo Neruda lived, is safe. The small house near the bay of Pollana, in Salina, made famous by the film Il Postino with Massimo Troisi, is safe from demolition.
Anyone who has sailed in the Aeolian Islands has stopped at least once in the splendid bay of Pollara, on the western side of the island of Salina. Looking up, on the left side of the bay, you can see an isolated small house about two hundred meters from the edge of the red cliff. Many professional skippers take their clients to Pollara to tell the story of the film and the great poet. The house was made famous by the film “Il Postino”, Massimo Troisi’s last masterpiece, in which the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda flees into exile following Pinochet’s 1973 coup, a coup during which his friend Salvador Allende, seeing himself lost, commits suicide. The Postman’s House, a key location in the film, is where Neruda lived and where the postman, played by Troisi, delivered his mail and developed a deep friendship with the poet.
The legal process was initiated by a neighbour who had reported an unauthorised expansion of the villa during the renovation phase, requesting the intervention of the Municipality and the Carabinieri. The Municipality of Malfa, whose territory the villa is located in, had found an illegal building and ordered demolition. For the owner “the Postman’s house represents a precious heritage to be protected and preserved so that its profound artistic, historical and cultural testimony is not lost and these elements, combined with the original conservation of the typical Aeolian structure, make it a true unicum, a symbol of local architecture, since the house, immersed among olive trees, hibiscus and oleanders, was built according to the principles of Aeolian architecture”. Judge Nino Caleca emphasizes “the artistic and landscape interest and the notable public interest given that it was chosen for the last film starring Massimo Troisi who had obtained 5 Oscar nominations in 1996, one of which won, of the house that has already been registered in the Lim – map of places of identity and memory of the Sicilian Region following the inclusion in the year 2000 of the Aeolian Islands in the World Heritage List”. In the appeal, it was established that the building was not abusive.
The Administrative Justice Council has issued a ruling: the reporting judge, Nino Caleca, and President Ermanno de Francisco have accepted the extraordinary appeal of the owner, Giuseppe Cafarella, saving the building from demolition. The dispute arose from a neighbour’s complaint, who reported an alleged abusive increase in volume during the renovation work. The abuse was always contested by the owner of the property, who also requested the recognition of the villa, the “Casa del Postino”, as a cultural and landscape asset of notable public interest. The judge accepted the request and reported it in the reasons for the sentence where it is written that the villa cannot be demolished due to the significant public interest in its preservation, given its artistic and landscape interest and its association with the last film starring Massimo Troisi, who had obtained 5 Oscar nominations in 1996, one of which won.
This is the decision of the reporting judge of the administrative justice council, Nino Caleca, and of President Ermanno de Francisco, who accepted the extraordinary appeal presented by the owner Giuseppe Cafarella to request the suspension of the provision of the Municipality of Malfa that had declared the building partly abusive. Thus, the Postman’s house is saved. The skippers will be able to continue to anchor in the bay of Pollara, telling the stories of Troisi and Neruda at sunset.