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Our history

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The first generation developed in Villa Castelli, in the late nineteenth century.
A small company of three cousins: the crops were owned or rented, arable land and olive groves. The work was carried out with mules, horses. The olives were collected with the “panerino”, small basket. The olives were processed in an ancient underground oil mill, in the so-called Spadone, a portion of land between the fiefdoms of Villa Castelli and Francavilla Fontana.

The second generation also formed a family company, made up of cousins and brothers, which settled in several farms of the time: Spadone, Fallacchia, Tagliavanti, Casalicchie.
It works by conferring the harvest on two different mills. The third generation, based in Fallacchia, decided in the 60s to buy the company of Curtimaggi. We have a first epochal turning point: we leave Villa Castelli, where three generations have lived, and go up to Curtimaggi, at the foot of the Murgia, in the territory of Grottaglie

Purchased in 1960, then officially born Curtimaggi. Francesco D’Urso, current patron, was 8 years old at the time. The beginning is difficult, the progenitor falls ill and the leadership of the company is lost. The twenty hectares, even if they are poor compared to today’s extension, become difficult to manage. Francesco finishes his studies. He gets his diploma and is called twice by the great steel maker: Italsider wanted him in Genoa to design the mechanical models. And here comes a second big turning point: Francesco says no to the fixed place, to the factory. He does not leave his family, he does not leave his land and he dedicates himself, soul
and body, to the family business. The olives and harvesting are the heart of the activity.

Curtimaggi, however, has no mills and the olive groves owned are few: Francesco then decides to start picking olive trees, count on the plant, and uses an oil mill in Ostuni. Here, the local regency decides to appoint him president. In these years Francesco buys the first plot, right next to the farm of Curtimaggi. Before that he had invested in a fund near the Galeso river: the olive trees, so praised by the great poets Virgil and Horace, became his. Over the years Francesco continues to invest the proceeds and earnings from the olive harvest and the company grows.
more and more. Today the company manages about 500 hectares and develops on different branches. Olive groves, arable land and vineyards. The olives, however, remain the large and main sector: over 40 thousand plants scattered on different grounds, at the foot of the Murge, where the air is really good and you can breathe the mountain breeze.

In 2011 a third epochal turning point: the Oil Mill was born. In the fund next to the farm is built a factory for the processing of olives. No entrance “foreigner” or third party: Curtimaggi works only its own olives following the path of organic extra virgin olive oil. For some years now, the fifth generation has also joined the management: the one that marks the entrance of Rosa and Angelo, sons of Francesco. Currently their role is twofold: they join the company’s activities with their studies in the faculties of Economics and Agriculture respectively. The goal is not to train and leave their native land: but to contribute to the new business development, following the tradition carved out by the great-great-grandfather, but with the energy and strength of those who have chosen to continue a work that more than just a profession represents a real choice of life.

“Every morning we wake up and look at the twisted trunks, these blackened busts, those hollows between the tree and the ground: they are our olive trees, they are thousands and thousands of years old, but they are always there, strong, powerful, to give us the strength and teach us that despite the thousand difficulties of life we must always find a new energy to go on”

Then Rosa and Angelo.
Today Curtimaggi has decided to open itself to the whole world. A brand was born, a brand. A new communication is launching the products also through the path on the internet. The prizes at the first competitions are coming. The ecommerce and the first three bottles are born. Here… we are, once again, in front of a new epochal turning point.

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