Mountain spring water pours from lion head spouts into a channel, before passing to rectangular wash basins equipped with stone slopes for scrubbing garments clean of stubborn soiling and stains, in the Lavatoio Medievale (medieval wash house) at Cefalu, Sicily, Italy. For centuries, Cefalu’s washerwomen laundered clothes here in water from the River Cefalino and used stone slopes to scrub garments clean of stubborn dirt and stains. Sicilian poet Vincenzo Auria described Cefalino’s water as “purer than silver, colder than snow”.
Cefalu, Sicily, Italy: mountain spring water pours from lion head spouts into a channel, before passing to rectangular wash basins equipped with stone slopes for scrubbing garments clean of stubborn soiling and stains, in the Lavatoio Medievale (medieval wash house), accessed by a curved flight of steps descending from Via Vittorio Emanuele. The wash basins and steps are built of a mixture of basalt volcanic lava rock and lumachella or fire marble, dotted with tiny fossil shells. According to local legend, the water originated from the relentless, remorseful tears of a mourning nymph who accidentally caused the death of her unfaithful lover. In fact, the water comes from the River Cefalino, which rises near the village of Gratteri in the Madonie mountains southwest of Cefalu. The stream was routed beneath the city streets in the 17th century, and it now flows out of the wash house to the sea through pipes. The Lavatoio is Arabian or Moorish in character, with Saracenic arches springing from stepped corbels a reminder of a 205-year pre-Norman period, from 858 to 1063 AD, when Cefalu was under Arab control as part of the Emirate of Sicily. It replaced an earlier wash house demolished in 1514 and the present structure mainly dates from the 16th century. Cefalu washerwomen continued to clean clothes here well into the 20th century before it finally fell into disuse. It was thoroughly restored in 1991. The quality of the water was emphasised by Palermo-born historian, lawyer, royal archivist and poet Vincenzo Auria (1625-1710), whose words feature in a Latin inscription on a plaque dated 1655 at the top of the steps. It translates: “Here flows Cefalino, healthier than any other river, purer than silver, colder than snow.”
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Cefalu, Sicily, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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