{"id":1715,"slug":"historic-snowpit-villa-miralfiore","title":"Ice House","image_url":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/28_La-Neviera.jpg","position":"The Garden","subtitle":"","text":"

In the Papa Albani garden of Villa Miralfiore<\/strong> stands a conical snow pit from the 1700s.
\nThis structure, accessed through a long underground tunnel, was used to store compacted snow that preserved food during the summer months.<\/p>\n","fulltext":"

The snow pit<\/strong> (constructed around 1700) is a conical structure with modest dimensions: three meters wide and approximately six meters high. Despite its age, the snow pit remains in good condition and retains its original structure. Access was through a tunnel several meters long, starting from a room located below the belvedere, while the loading opening is situated in the Papa Albani garden<\/strong>.
\nThe snow pit is often incorrectly referred to as an “icehouse<\/em>“, but its function was different. During the winter months, servants would collect snow from the surrounding areas and deposit it through a hatch. The snow would gradually compact into a solid block of ice. When external temperatures rose, typically in late spring or early summer, the caretaker would cautiously open the access doors to retrieve the ice, keeping the environment as insulated as possible to prevent heat loss.
\nShelves along the walls were used to store food, preserving freshness for extended periods, effectively acting as a natural refrigerator. This system was employed in many parts of the world as an ingenious solution for cooling before modern refrigeration technologies.<\/p>\n","audio":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/28_Snow-Pit.mp3","video":false,"details":"","english":"","italian":"neviera-storica-villa-miralfiore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poi\/1715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poi"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/poi"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villamiralfiore.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}