Favignana Island – Wikipedia

FAVIGNA (in Sicilian Fauglana ) is an island of Italy belonging to the Egadi archipelago, in Sicily.

The main island of the Archipelago of the Egadi Islands, is located about 7 km from the western coast of Sicily, between Trapani and Marsala, and is part of the municipality of Favignana.

The name of Favignana derives from the Latin west (Favonio), a term with which the Romans indicated the hot wind from the west. The village rises around a natural inlet where the port is structured on whose banks there are the buildings of the ancient Tonnare Florio.

The traditional Mediterranean architecture of the island, characterized by white plasters and blue or green windows, are, especially in recent years, the object of rediscovery and enhancement, the landscape has in fact protected by the above -mindedness to cultural heritage.

The island, mainly covered with Mediterranean scrub consisting of bushy shrubs and maritime pine forests, has established itself as an important tourist destination.

Territory [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The island of Favignana has an area of ​​about 19 km² and a coastal development of 33 km jambled and rich in cavities and caves. In ancient times the name of Favignana was Egusa ( Expedient for the Latins), from the Greek Aigousa ( Resilient ), that is, “who has goats”, given their abundance on the island. He was also known by other names such as Have been swapped ^[first] , Katria , Deep And it is remembered by numerous writers including Pliny, Polybius, Nepoziano, the Anonymous Ravenna. By Arab geographers was known by the name Djazirat ‘en Rahib (“Isola del Monaco” or “of the Romito”), as a Norman castle stands on the island, the so -called Santa Caterina Castle , where he would have lived precisely a monk. The painter Salvatore Fiume called her a “butterfly on the sea” because of her characteristic conformation. The current name (in ancient times Favognana ) it comes from Favor , a hot wal of west that determines the very mild climate.

Although in ancient times it was rich in vegetation, today it is poor because of the deforestation.

The island is crossed from north to south by a mountain range whose maximum altitude is that of Monte Santa Caterina , 314 meters. Two other peaks are the Punta della Campana 296 meters high and the Pound on the gross (252 meters).

On the southern side there are the prescription, jail and jail islets (practically the rocks).

Flora and fauna [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Favignana is part of the Egadi Natural Reserve established in 1991. ^[2]

The island is quite barren and hosts the typical Mediterranean scrub and Gariga. The vegetation is therefore made up of oleastro, lentisco, carrubo, Euphorbia dendroides And Sommacco. There are some interesting endemisms such as marine cabbage ( Brassica macrocarpa ), the maritime flower ( Calendula marital ), Boccone’s fennel ( Bocconi Seseli ). A study by the sixties on the vegetation of the Egadi brings about 570 species to Favignana. ^[3]

In the east area of ​​the island there are many hypogeal gardens, treated and cultivated inside the now abandoned tuff quivers.

It is one of the few Sicilian minor islands in which a population of Sicilian emerald toad is present ( Bufotes Boulengeri Sicilian ). ^[4]

The cellar [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The two portions of the island territory suffered a different destiny due to the decision, by the Saracens, to found the first nucleus of the country near the eastern slopes of the Monte Santa Caterina , and the different mineralogical composition of the rock present in both; This difference in composition has shifted the attention of the islanders to the eastern side, giving life to the long activity of extraction of the stone.

The tuff quarries are therefore scattered on the territory of the Flat By becoming, over the centuries, the element that most characterizes the anthropized landscape of the island. The stone on the island is a calcarenite, sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand and fossil shells, which stands out in two categories: one of lower quality, yellow, present in the upper layer of the ground and one of superior quality, color white, below the previous one; The white limestone of Favignana has been used, over the centuries, as an excellent construction material that is still located in the homes and church of the Immaculate Conception of Favignana, in the Villa Florio, in the Villa Igiea of ​​Palermo, in Messina in the Palaces reconstructed after the 1908 earthquake and in Tunis.

The exploitation of the soil reached maximum development in the period between the government of the Pallavicino (17th century) and that of the Florio (beginning of the 20th century) during which, through the improvement of the techniques and tools useful for cutting the stone, The Favignanesi quarrymen became experts in the profession.

The extraction methods practiced for the realization of the quarries in Favignana are divided into two categories: a open sky (pit) O al covered (with galleries and pillars) ; The determination of the excavation method depended exclusively on the orographic condition of the soil.

The open -air method involved the creation of a quarry through the squaring of a horizontal surface, 10x10m long. About, and the subsequent elimination of the vegetation and the hat, the surface layer of the rock with variant thick from 1 to 2 meters, until it reaches the deepest stone. The quarry was therefore built layer by layer allowing the quarrymen to extract the stone from top to bottom, going down in the depth of the ground, taking care to leave the seizures attached to the ground in order to form a staircase, the only element of access to the internal.

The indoor method instead included access to the quarry or through natural caves, located purely along the coast, or through the opening of a gallery on an vertical wall of an open -air quarry. The creation of a gallery planned to leave some portions of rock intact that served as vertical support.

Beaches [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The best known access to the sea on the island of Favignana are:

• The Praia beach
• Ravine (sandy beach)
• Cala Azzurra ( beach with rocks )
• Cala Rossa ( cliff )
• Bue marine ( cliff )
• Cala Grande
• Crazy Runna (run rounda)
• Cave beaded ( cliff )
• Calamoni ( cliff and small beaches )
• Slide ( cliff )
• To Praia
• Longa Punta
• Preveto ( barks )
• Marasolo ( small beach with rocks )

The Cala Rossa beach in 2015 was awarded to be the most beautiful beach in Italy according to the Skyscanner website ^[5] .

The human presence in Favignana dates back to the superior Paleolithic; traces of very ancient human settlements are mainly in the caves of Faraglione he was born in Well In the San Nicola area. It was known to the ancient Greeks with the name Expedient (Αιγούσα, goat island). The Phoenicians settled in Favignana from the eighth century BC. Until the year 241 BC, when, the Roman army, led by Gaius Lutazio Catulo, was disfigured by the Carthaginian fleet in the final battle of the First Punic War, called Battle of the Egadi Islands, after which Sicily was definitively annexed to Rome. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the islands fell into the hands of the vandals, the Goths and later of the Saracens.

In 1081 the Normans, under the government of Ruggero d’Altavilla, made a village there and powerful fortifications: Forte San Giacomo (inside the ex-Carcere, in the village) and that of Santa Caterina (on top of the mountain) . Fate of Sicily followed until the 16th century, belonging to the dear families as Baronia ^[6] and hedgehog; In 1568 the fiefdom was sold to Francesco Ferdinando d’Avalos; In the mid-seventeenth century, together with the entire archipelago, it became the property of the Pallavicini-Rusconi of Genoa, with the title of Marquises ^[7] And then, in 1874, of the Florio, who enhanced the tuna of the island.

From the Bourbon period to Fascism, the island was used above all as a prison and a place of confinement for political opponents. During the Bourbon period he was locked up in the fossa of S.Caterina the Mazzinian Giovanni Nicotera, who was then freed by the Garibaldini after the landing of the thousand ^[8] .

During the Second World War, the island was endowed along the coasts, given its strategic position, with an imposing network of houses and military fortifications, largely still preserved today.

Favignana, since the time of Roman domination, has been the extractive seat of the white tuff shell (in reality it is improperly said tuff , being a calcarenite and not a rock of volcanic origin, as is the real tuff) used in construction. The so-called tuff It represented an important economic source for the inhabitants of the island. The long extractive activity, particularly present in the eastern part of the island, has given rise to particular ditches, darves and caves, now transformed, especially by private citizens, into particular and suggestive vegetable gardens, gardens and homes.

Literature, music and cinema [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

• The author of Trapani Giacomo Pilati published in 2004, for Mursia, the book King , relating to a story held on the island of Favignana at the end of the nineteenth century. From this book, the film was taken in 2009 Purple sea , by Donatella Majorca, with the participation of Maria Grazia Cucinotta
• In 1986 the film was shot almost entirely in Favignana Commissioner Lo Gatto with Lino Banfi
• The miniseries was shot in 2009 The island of secrets – Korè
• In 2003 the film was shot in Favignana The island by Costanza Quatriglio, with the extraordinary participation of Erri De Luca in the role of the mechanic, the only film appearance of the Neapolitan writer
• In 2012 the film was shot There is always a reason With Maria Grazia Cucinotta
• In 2019 Paolo Licata shot the film there Child , with Lucia Sardo, taken from the novel of the same name, set in Favignana, of Catena Fiorello ^[9]
• The writer and musician Bob Salmieri, of Favignanese origin, dedicated two books and two CDs to the island:
  • The stories or coffee of the faciest (Ed. Interculturali 2005)
  • Men and Dei – Small Sicilian Odyssey (Coppola Editore 2007)
  • The stories or coffee of the faciest (Tinder records USA 2002)
  • The stories or coffee of the rageroyo Novo (CNI Music – Italia 2006)
• Favignana Mystic Blues by Mario Scotto is a yellow novel set entirely in Favignana.

Religious architectures [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

At the center of the town of Favignana stands the eighteenth -century church named after the Madonna of the Immaculate Conception within which a precious wooden crucifix of the eighteenth century and a marble statue depicting Sant’Antonio of the seventeenth century is kept.

Civil architecture [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

• Villa Florio It is a neo -Gothic building, built by Ignazio Florio from 1876 to 1878 on a project by the architect Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda. ^[3] Today it is owned by the Municipality and hosts the tourist info point ^[ten] .
• Castle of Santa Caterina, on the top of the island.
• The ex-installation of the tonnara of Favignana, no longer in activity due to the reduced number of caught tuna, restored between 2003 and 2009. Currently the place is open to the public for a fee and are offered guided tours of former workers of the plant . Inside it is possible to find video testimonies related to the slaughter and tonnara, and also historical videos granted by the light institute. It is home to a Antiquarium , where there is a room in which historical finds found in the sea of ​​the Egadi islands are exhibited. ^[11] .

Once based on tuna fishing and tuff extractive activity, now it rests almost solely on tourism. Thus there was a development of hotel accommodation and above all extra hotel in the city and in the surrounding area, with the birth of tourist villages, hotels, farmhouses and holiday homes.

The catering sector also had a growth due to tourism, both in the number of premises and in the quality of the proposals.