Casa Tomba

In a steeply pitched stretch of Italian countryside, a curious structure blends almost seamlessly into a cluster of rustic farmhouses. This is the Casa Tomba, a tomb that has long since shrugged off its original funereal purpose. Its form is a simple, rectangular block, now rising across three levels, a quiet defiance of the single-storey grave it once was.

The lower floor, built of irregular stone courses, hints at antiquity. Above, the masonry shifts abruptly to concrete blocks, a pragmatic, unromantic repair job. A pitched roof, clad in Marseille tiles, completes the transformation from sepulchre to shelter. Such re-purposing is not unusual in the Italian landscape, where the practical needs of the living often absorb the monuments of the dead. The Casa Tomba no longer marks a single burial; it has become a home, its ancient bones now holding up a kitchen and a bedroom, a quiet, unremarkable part of the everyday.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.