I have traced the problem to a set of directions in the .conf file:
the Virtual Host was missing this:
<Directory "/var/www">
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
Which made the server to ignore .htaccess files altogether.
The full answer is here
I have traced the problem to a set of directions in the .conf file:
the Virtual Host was missing this:
<Directory "/var/www">
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
Which made the server to ignore .htaccess files altogether.
The full answer is here