Page 9 - Heritage Italia Magazine n 4

Even that at the first glance the island may appear of an arid aspect , immediately she reveals to the visitor , not only from
the countryside but also from the gardens and hypogeal grounds obtained on disused old tufa caves, the most magnificent
and unexpected vegetation.

The tufa, together with fishing and agricultural activity, has been on the past one of the most important economic resource
for the inhabitant of Favignana: cut into blocks it was e exported to Sicily and north Africa for constructions of walls, towers.

Even the Saracens have left the signs of their presence through the three sightseeing towers built in the harbour, “Torretta”
and Mount of S. Catherina ( then becoming a fort under Ruggero the Norman, on XII century, and widened and fortressed,
on XVII century, by the Spanish.

On 1794 when the Bourbons started to send the patriots , forced to live under arrest in a not human way, begun its sad
fate as a top-security prison. After the landing of Garibaldi in Marsala, on 1860, the crowd who released all the prisoners
destroyed all that could remember such injustice and the building was then turned on as a signal-station, its duty however
did not last so long as located on top of the mountain was often covered by cloud thus not of any utility to mariners.

For a long time different tuna-fishing net companies have been alternated till the one established by the Florio family, actual
only as an example of archaeological industry, thanks to which Favignana reached its apogee. Like a town into the town it
used to give jobs to most of the inhabitant assuring the well-being and a good quality of life.