Tonnara di Scopello

Between the faraglioni and the open sea, the Tonnara di Scopello preserves the built remains and material history of a historic Sicilian tuna fishery: a fortified baglio, boats and the memory of the mattanza.

Why it matters

Sicily's western coast sits directly on the bluefin tuna migration routes, and fixed trap fisheries called tonnare followed those routes for centuries. The site is among the island’s oldest documented tuna fisheries: the operator dates the Marfaggio, the boat bay at the complex’s core, to the thirteenth century. The surviving buildings around the cove preserve the working layout of the fishery, including mooring, storage and administrative spaces. Its interpretation centres on the history of the mattanza.

What to notice

The cove is enclosed by rock walls and the offshore faraglioni. Within the baglio are rooms used by the rais and crew, net-related structures and boat sheds. The small museum displays fishing craft, tools, net-making textiles and photographs of the mattanza. The complex also includes a small church, the Palazzina Florio from the estate’s industrial period, and a sighting tower on the rock above.

Context and history

The site grew through several phases. The thirteenth-century Marfaggio formed the nucleus, watched over by a coastal sighting tower of the kind that still dots the Sicilian shoreline. Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the fishery passed to a noble family of Trapani, under whom the buildings expanded into the fortified baglio whose outline survives. The complex later came to the Jesuits, who added improvements: the small church, warehouses for the boats, and housing for the fishermen. In 1874 the Florio family, with other buyers, acquired the property at a public auction and modernised the operation, raising productivity and building the Palazzina Florio for its offices. Fishing wound down in the twentieth century as Sicily's tonnare declined; the buildings survived, and the site has since appeared as a backdrop in international film and television productions, which widened its fame well beyond the gulf. The adjacent village of Scopello developed in connection with the fishery, and the two remain closely linked in the history of the coast.