H(a)unting Houses Series III

Besides hunting abandoned buildings, I enjoy going on hikes, which means I go on one or two a year. This summer, I spent a week in Brusino Arsizio, a small village in the south of Ticino with a stunning view of the Lago Maggiore. On top of Brusino lies a mountain called “Monte di San Giorgio,” which got adopted by the UNESCO world heritage due to its important fossil deposit dating back to the Middle Triassic. One can visit the museum of fossils from Meride, which was remodeled and expanded by Ticinese architect Mario Botta in 2012. Besides the museum, Monte di San Giorgios’s must-see, according to the website of “Mendrisiotto Turismo,” is the archeological park in Tremone Castello, the summit panorama of the monte itself, and the old studio of painter Fiorello Fiorini.

Finally, I decided to climb the Monte di San Giorgio on this beautiful summer day. What I most enjoy in the forests of Ticino are the semitropical vibes from the ferns. So, I was walking and walking until I found my sixth sense fully activated. I saw what I smelled and heard what I felt until I stood in front of this lost place. A dream of a house in the middle of nowhere or, to be precise, in the middle of everything that was there.

Trees, weeds, flowers, butterflies, fungi, and whatnot. The house’s walls, built from stone, were still stable. The place hosts two floors with many rooms. On the first floor, I found a room with a fireplace and, in the hallway, a kitchen. Across the hallway was another considerable room. The stairs that went up to the second floor were in the middle of the hallway. A few steps on the stairs to the right was an outhouse with the smallest window I have e ever seen in my life.

A few steps more and I arrived on the second floor. In the left wing of the second floor was a smaller bedroom and across the bedroom was again a vast room where some parts of the building started collapsing. Nature took over every corner where the walls were out of order. The trees prospering in front of the house came through the openings and the windows. There was also one room where you could see up to the roof and space for a potential attic. I had some difficulties capturing the right wing of the house because sheet metal floors only supported some.

Not many traces were left behind physically. Also, my online research was challenging. I couldn’t find out what the house once was used for, who lived in it, nor who owned it, nothing. I must admit that I was very frustrated. I had so many questions! Therefore I then started questioning myself. There was only this one broom in one of the rooms. Are we back in times of witchcraft? If I had interrogated the only other hiker that day, an older man, would he have shown me the path that would have led me to my answers?

Well, I will never know. All I know is that the light and air in and around the house were insanely refreshing. I imagined kids running around in the garden, people drinking and telling each other’s stories about the society around Monte di San Giorgio, a studio to paint in. As I already mentioned, hauntedness hunted for me.