The Marc Mességué Health Center is in the municipality of Montecchio (TR), just a few kilometres from the beautiful city of Todi and a stone’s throw from Melezzole, a delightful little village with about 400 inhabitants and an ancient history. Its inhabitants live in close contact with their unspoilt natural surroundings - a lush green landscape where preservation of the territory and its cultural values and traditions are clear, even in the love for the old stone houses that have all been renovated with great care and attention.
The origins of Melezzole are lost in the mist of time; some archaeological finds that date from the 3rd - 2nd centuries BC, show that there was already a fairly flourishing community here at that time. The name of Melezzole appears in numerous mediaeval documents; in the first half of the fourteenth century, Melezzole, along with Toscolano and Santa Restituta, formed a government “castellany” with almost exclusively military purposes. Since then, there has been a lot of documented evidence that makes it possible to reconstruct the history of this village, which has managed to retain all its urban and architectural features.
Torre Errighi is an important part of the history of Melezzole. It was once a Ghibelline fortress, feud of the Errighi-Brandolini family, originally nobles from Guardea who moved to the “comitato Tudertino” (Tuder was the ancient name of Todi) in 1302.
In the mediaeval estate of Melezzole, the feud was concentrated around a fortress overlooked by a tall watch tower, the Torre Errighi; it was a fortress built on a strategic point on the crossroads between the road from Todi to Melezzole and from here to the mountains and therefore, the Tiber River. The castle featured a main tower with stone staircase, the small church of Santa Barbara on the south side of its base (still completely intact) and walls, alternated with small jutting towers with embattlements. Communication with the outside world was through a single gate with a drawbridge. In the sixteenth century this castle was transferred in dowry to the Alvi family, who commissioned its renovation, as indicated in an inscription under the family coat of arms that can still be found above the entrance gate. On that occasion all the military apparatus and perhaps the castle walls were removed, transforming the place into a tranquil and spacious country residence as generally occurred during the Renaissance with this type of building. In the nineteenth century, Torre Errighi was inherited by the ancestors of the last owner and this helped to create the Marc Mességué Health Center that Marc himself and his friend and collaborator Dr. Pier Roberto Merani, along with their team, have instilled with all the experience gained in five years working at the phytotherapy institute in Bordighera, applying the “Mességué method”.