The small village of Fossànghera
lies in the center of the Pozzobrutto ravine,
and was left apart from the tourist flows, also because its inhabitants
use to steal systematically the road signs in order to make sleds
to slide on the screes of the outskirts.
The small village has (February 2007) a population of 321 inhabitants,
is continuously changing thanks to the annual suicides rate of
34%, a data unique in the world and therefore pride and boast
for the authochtons.
Its inhabitants are named "fossangheresi", or more often
"those ones", since nobody really wants to name them.
The economy of the country, once based on raiding the carriages
passing on the nearby Roman road, recently evolved itself and
today it's based on raiding the vehicles parked by the nearby
motorway restaurant.
Handicraft
The products of the Fossangherese handicraft are offered, usually
in vain, in the village shops and in the parking of the nearby
motorway restaurant. Between them stands out the "gnògno",
a traditional little basket bearing a cherry kernel, made of interlaced
cherry stems, the ancient pledge of love of the Fossangherese
young men for their fiancèes or their she-goats.
The craftsmen of Fossànghera make a poor handicraft, based
on re-use of materials, obtaining products like the eyeglasses
sheath made of sanding paper, the hand-decorated recycled hygienic
paper, the paper-weights made with beer
cans crushed on the freeway.
Fossànghera artists have several times decorated the walls
of the nearby motorway restaurant's toilets by the traditional
technique of "finger painting".
What to see
At the center of the only cross-roads of the village lies a valuable
work of art, inspired to Duchamp's work, entitled "urinal
4", coming from from the "Gentlemen" toilets
of the nearby motorway restaurant, while in the center of the
village's main square rises the concrete base
(1 x 1 meter of base and 20 cm of height) of the monument to the
most illustrious Fossangherese citizen, that will be completed
as soon as an illustrious citizen will be found in the village.
On the wall of the church can still be seen the rest of an electoral
poster of 1953, the only one ever posted up in the village, and
on which it can also be read: "vote n° 43".
Festivities and
popular traditions
The chief attraction of the Fossangherese summer is the traditional
contest of ice sculpture which takes place on the main square
on mid-August day from 2,00 PM to 2.05 PM. Then follows the exciting
contest of blows-with-the-head-on-the-wall, called "capocciatata",
which culminates with the winner's solemn funeral at the municipality's
expense.
The typical winter festivity of Fossànghera is celebrated
at the end of January and consists in a resistance contest between
the village's old people, which are hitted by bucketfuls of chilly
water as they run all naked in the night in the alleys of the
village, between the amusement of the bystanders.
Easter is celebrated from time immemorial with the ceremony called
"squàscio" for which all the inhabitants make
preparations since Christmas, decorating eggs with finger-marks
of soot, mud or other.
Then on Easter day the "squascianti" break one other
in their head the eggs, which at this point are spoiled, uttering
savage shouts and giving out body noises.
For the typical Fossangherese Christmas festivity the over sixty
villagers are stoned to death, just before the midnight mass.
Gastronomy
The Fossànghera cookery is defined "poor" by
some people, "pitiful" by many others. The main course
is the "padellacchio", made with crushed animals picked
up on the motorway, insects picked up from the windshields and
expired food coming from the nearby motorway restaurant.
Other specialty is the noodle-soup, that in just in Fossànghera
is by tradition drained away as soon as cooked and served dry.
Other peculiarity of the local cookery is the raw potato salad.
Entertainment
The traditional pastime of the village consists in reading the
trailer trucks' plates in the parking of the nearby motorway restaurant.
The most audacious, especially the young ones, try to stop the
running trucks dropping stones from the flyover, so they can read
more easily the plates, as the trucks crash against the the nearby
motorway restaurant's sign.
Welcome
The cannibalism cases, once very frequent, are today sporadic,
limited to few cases a day. It's however advisable, in case you
are invited for lunch by a villager, to check if your role in
the meal is just that of a guest. The village's hospitality is
rather rough, but after all warm; but in case a group of villagers
would run towards you we shaking axes and sticks, shouting "letzkillim!"
(untranslatable dialectal term), you could assume a not much friendly
attitude towards you, and this would advise you to shorten your
stay in the village. An accurate visit of the village of Fossànghera
usually takes one or two minutes, and is advisable to leave your
car in motion, already turned towards the village's way out and
with open doors, for being ready to catch the opportunities that
could to emerge.
How to get there
Fossànghera doesn't have a railway station, it's not reached
by any bus company and, usually, taxis and cabs refuse to take
you there. The village can anyway be reached by private cars,
having at least four drive wheels and raised bottom, driven by
an expert rallyman. Fossànghera can also be reached by
feet, passing over the wire net of the nearby motorway restaurant
in the environs of the rubbish dump behind the toilets, following
then the human bones' trail that leads to the village.
Contacts
The Fossànghera tourist office is on the back of the nearby
motorway restaurant. Contact "Squint-eyed" or "Throat-cutter".
page
last updated:
March 18th 2007