Tuna & the Mattanza
The bluefin tuna run and the tonnara of Favignana — the ancient maze of nets, the songs of the tonnaroti, and the mattanza, the bloody and now-vanishing ritual slaughter that fed and defined these islands.
Part of Trapani
4 moments in this segment.
- — The Florio empire. The Florio family industrialise the tuna trade in the 19th century, inventing tuna canned in olive oil and turning Favignana into a company island.
- — The tonnara of Favignana. The great Florio tuna cannery on Favignana — once the largest in the Mediterranean, where the bluefin catch was processed and tinned in oil.
- — The mattanza. The ancient ritual slaughter — bluefin tuna funnelled through a maze of nets into the 'chamber of death', then hauled up by chanting tonnaroti in a churning red sea.
- — The cialoma. the rhythmic work-songs the tonnaroti sang to coordinate the brutal labour of raising the nets, an oral tradition now nearly silent.
