The Square of the rake, an ancient peasant work tool used in the meadows to gather grass or hay, is a widening along the historic street of Ornica, between old houses, crossroads and restarts of lanes and stairways, a nodal point of the local road system. The name, according to popular tradition, would mean that in this place, where like teeth in a comb or a rake the vertical side streets converge on the main street, people would meet, stop to chat, gather, especially men, at the Locanda Ruffoni, "dalla Letizia", named after the ancient owner of the inn, bakery and pastry shop, which spread its good tradition throughout the valley.
Here, gathering together in the piazza in their free time, coming and going, having fun at the osteria, gave the idea of hay harvested by the farmer's rake.
"Rastèl" is also a term which in dialect means a place where hay or fodder is gathered. And it is said that in this place there was once an old farmhouse, a "tègia", where hay was gathered for the cows for the winter. Today on the square you can admire some old buildings with the beautiful signs of balconies and portals in worked and chiselled serizzo and an old house with a beautiful studded portal, significant signs of a simple architecture, but rich in technical, decorative and ornamental solutions.
Italian