I Quadri di Fano

At the mouth of Fano's harbour, wooden cabins on stilts lean out over the Adriatic on long nets stretched below. These are the quadri, the city's own version of the trabocco, survivals of a fishing technology that once supported coastal communities across the Marche.

Why it matters

Fixed shore fishing defines this stretch of the Adriatic. From Gabicce Mare down to San Benedetto del Tronto, the regional coastline is punctuated by these stilted contraptions, known by local names that change from valley to valley: bílancion, lugerne, pésche, trabucchi, and at Fano quadri. They belong to the popular maritime architecture of the Marche, built from poles, planks, cables and pipes and refined through the experience of fishermen. The quadri at Fano's harbour mouth preserve this heritage.

What to notice

A wooden hut sits on the platform; around it rises a framework of beams, ropes and winches, with narrow walkways projecting over the water and rocks at the pier's foot. From the largest of these arms the fishermen once swung the giant square nets that give the structures their local name: a quadro is, literally, a square. The construction is practical, and the weathered timber records exposure to storms and salt. At the entrance of the canal port, the platforms stand between the sandy Lido beach and the masts of the Marina dei Cesari.

Context and history

The platforms belong to the longer history of a port refashioned repeatedly since antiquity. Fano's harbour was rebuilt in 1616 under Pope Paul V Borghese, the phase remembered as the Darsena Borghese, and extended again in the nineteenth century, before the canal port and outer piers took their modern shape. Fishing with fixed installations from the shore remained constant through all these rebuilds, and the quadri survived as working gear well into living memory. Storm damage and age eventually demanded renewal, and in the early 2000s the platforms at the pier were reconstructed, with timber specialists documenting a quadro rebuilt in 2005 in laminated wood on piles beside the port entrance. Rebuilt or not, they continue the same technique: nets lowered from the arms, worked by rope and counterweight, lifting fish from the water without a boat ever leaving the shore.