Favignana: the island of tuff quarries
Like all islands, Favignana can rely on several sources of livelihood. We have already talked about the tuna slaughter but we have not yet mentioned the main reason for the wealth of the great Mediterranean butterfly: calcarenite and its wonderful tuff quarries.
A white, porous stone
La calcarenite, o tuff, is a white, porous stone, widely used in the construction industry. It is not easy to find a date that temporally places the beginning of this activity on the island, but what we do know is certainly that the first quarries were dug near the sea. Indeed, the proximity to the coast made it possible to reduce the labor involved in transporting the stone, which was done by sea.
Tuff mining was mainly concentrated in the eastern area of Favignana, in the vicinity of Cala del Bue Marino, of the Horse and of Cala Rossa. An area, in fact, particularly rich in this material that, for centuries, has been the main source of wealth for islanders (even more than tuna).
Mining took place either in open pit, or by swallowing, through the opening of excavations that started from a natural wall, or right from an open pit quarry. In this case, work was being done inland with the help of machinery and candles to illuminate the area.
I stonecutters, o pirriaturi, , often worked in quarries purchased from contractors who paid for the extractions. The workday was going 12 to 14 hours e payment was by piecework: based on the number of cantuna
extracted (calcarenite stone blocks of specific sizes), the pirriature earned more or less money. The value of a cantuna could vary: in the postwar period, for example, it was around 23 liras.
Quarries were exploited as long as they could be dug., that is, when the stone did not become so hard that it could not be carved, or the quarry so full of shells that it could not be worked without ruining the tools.
Decommissioned quarries in the past have faced a major problem of being used as dumps by uncivilized citizens. On the other hand, however, you have been able to Seize its great tourism potential: so many are in fact the recovery works who have seen them turn into a hotel (such as Hotel delle Cave, near the Cavallo area and Cave Bianche Hotel), parks (such as the Garden of the Impossible or the Great Bear Cave Park), or in places of cultural interest (an example is Cava Sant’Anna, in summer used as an outdoor cinema or as a venue for musical events.)
The Garden of the Impossible
One of the greatest works of recovery is that of Maria Gabriella Campo, daughter of a pirriature, who, together with her husband, decided to reclaim and redevelop to gardens and orchards a tuff quarry, now used as a landfill.
The name of the garden stems from the fact that no one believed in the feasibility of this work: it seemed, in fact, impossible Growing trees and plants in a setting like that. Instead, thanks to stubbornness and a boundless love for Favignana, the couple managed to give birth to a lunique and evocative place, which is home to nearly 500 different species of shrubs and climbing grasses.
Today the garden can be visited, both by guests of the hotel structure that was built right inside this botanical park, and by those who want to immerse themselves in an almost surreal context. Since 2003, in fact, by the will of the owners, 90-minute tours are organized, the cost of which is 15€ (tickets purchasable here). The experience is very special.: visitors are accompanied in small groups by a guide who will make the garden experience 360 degrees, allowing them to rub and smell plants such as faux pink pepper, or even to taste fruits such as carob or figs directly from the tree.
The tuff quarries represent an identifying element of the island of Favignana and show, once again, man’s ingenuity and ability to find wealth in what nature offers.
Beatrice Saura