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Every morning, Lucia Braccini wakes and fixes breakfast in a home with four ovens, each oven from its niche in the last 6 centuries.
Braccini, the recently re-elected president of Cagli’s preservation society, lives in one

of the city’s most historic homes, a 15th century mansion that has been in the hands of the Braccinis for four generations and is now being renovated to repair the damage from a 1997 earthquake.

In the 15th century, the Drudaies, a powerful Cagliese land-owning family, built a large home by modern standards. In the 1800s, the Drudae family had no heirs, and the house passed to other hands. At that time, there was a priest in the Braccini family, and the Drudaes felt they would be “following God’s plan” should they sell the house to the Braccinis. Braccinis have owned the house since.

Lucia's mansion has been in the family for four generations.

Lucia's kitchen includes an original 15th-century stove

Braccini’s kitchen includes an original 15th-century stove. A coal oven is built into the counter, with a metal grate on top for cooking. Opening the front door of the oven allows more air in to the coals, raising the temperature. Braccini says that this oven is too much work to use now because the coals have to be shoveled out through the small opening by hand.

The second stove, nicknamed the forno economico, or the “economic oven,” burns wood and can cook food, heat clothes irons, and even heat the house. It dates to the 18th century and is now in the living room.

Of the four ovens, only two are still used. A modern gas stove is in the main kitchen, with a copper plate on the front that matches the assortment of copper pots hanging from the walls.

 

 

A 15th-century bread oven is built into the wall next to the fireplace. Braccini still uses it. She begins by making the dough from scratch on a nearby antique cutting table that she also uses for making pasta.

The kitchen is only the start of the house’s treasures.
Braccini says her other favorite room is the living room. She leads the way back to the kitchen and living room area, painted the same warm yellow as the outside of the house. The living room pulls all the elements of the house together.
 

The living room pulls all the elements of the house together

 

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