The history of Masseria Cassiere begins with the dynasty of the Dukes Caracciolo del Leone who started at the end of 1700 a deep programme of rural colonisation in the large fief of the Duke of Martina in Mottola, deforesting the thick, thousand-year-old woods of oaks and transforming them into sowable and grazing land, which formed the endowment of cultivable land of the new “masserie” which were being built.
At the end of the 18th century, on the initiative of the Duke Placido Caracciolo the first core of the “masseria” was built, in the estate of Difesa di Selvadritta Piccola and Parchitello di Giovan Maria Rizzi, 17th-century toponyms for the woods belonging to the Dukes. In fact, the original name of the “masseria” was Giammariarizzi, although at the beginning of the 19th century the inhabitants of Mottola already called it Cascieri or Cassiere.
The original core of the “masseria” was considerably extended during the 19th up to the first years of the 20th century, with 6-year leases which provided, each time, the building of new, enormous lamioni (big rooms) for the lodging of tenants and gualani (stockmen) or for sheds, laboratories, warehouses.
During the 19th century the masseria di campo of Cassiere specialised in the production of wheat, oats, barley and fodder, housing bovines which produced excellent cheese for private use and for sale. In the 19th-century farm at least 20 people lived permanently, plus dozens of seasonal workers which were housed in the different phases of the agricultural work.
In 1849, with the death of Maria Argentina, daughter and heiress of founder Placido Caracciolo, the “masseria” was bequeathed to her husband Nicola De’ Sangro, Count of Brienza, the offspring of an important nobiliary house of Abruzzi, who owned Cassiere up to 1978, with the Dukes Placido and Riccardo De’ Sangro.
After a short hereditary transition in the hands of the noble Sicilian Giuseppe Lanza di Mazzarino, the “masseria” was bought in 1979 by former tenants Mrs Teresa Mangini and Mr Gennaro Schiavone. Since 2000, the house is property of Maria Grottola and Sergio Natale Maglio, who live here with their sons, Francesco and Andrea, and partially transformed it into a bed & breakfast.