Former Florio factory in Favignana
The former Florio di Favignana plant , with inside a space intended for a museum, multimedia rooms and other spaces for various ethno-cultural events, is a splendid example of industrial archeology.
The complex , which extends for about 32 thousand square meters, includes the ancient tuna fishery of Favignana and the adjoining establishment for the conservation of the fish. There are large covered areas, spaces and environments different in size and intended use: offices, warehouses, carpentry, workshops, locker room for men and locker room for women, hold, car gallery, trizzana and malfaraggio for the shelter of boats , rooms serving the long battery of ovens for cooking tuna and, towering above everything, three tall chimneys. All the buildings are characterized by the tuff from Favignana.
The first nucleus of the plant was born thanks to the Genoese Giulio Drago who rented the Favignana trap in 1859. In 1878, at the behest of Ignazio Florio who commissioned the architect Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda, the buildings of the trap were enlarged and renovated, and the plant for the conservation of tuna was built. The first of its kind and it is here that the revolutionary method of preserving tuna in oil after boiling and canning was invented. The tuna cut into pieces was cooked in 24 large boilers, still visible today, and then placed to dry. In another large room, the milk was processed using machines and welders. At the universal exhibition of 1891-92, the Florio company also presented the innovative tin cans with key opening. In the first decades of the 1900s, the most important Sicilian industrial and financial group went bankrupt.
The Florio factory remained fully productive passing into the hands of the Parodi family of Genoa, who also bought Favignana and the tonnara in 1937 with all land rights and of sea. With the latter, the plant continued to work profitably until the 1970s, when the plant ceased its activity as it could no longer be competitive in the market. Acquired to the patrimony of the Sicilian Region, today it has become a museum center .
