Ex Stabilimento Florio delle Tonnare di Favignana e Formica

The former Florio tuna-processing plant on Favignana is now a museum dedicated to the island's tonnara, the traditional tuna fishery. Its vast industrial halls preserve machinery, photographs and testimony connected with the mattanza and the lives of the workers who carried it out.

Why it matters

The Ex Stabilimento Florio delle Tonnare di Favignana e Formica is a landmark of industrial architecture and social history. The complex covers roughly 32,000 square metres near the harbour. Its halls document a fishery that linked Favignana with Formica and shaped the work and culture of the islands.

What to notice

The battery of 24 boilers shows the scale of tuna processing. In the hall known as the Torino, a video installation presents testimony from former workers. Photographic displays include Herbert List's 1951 reportage and images by Sebastião Salgado from the early 1990s. The antiquarium contains finds recovered from the archipelago's waters, including a bronze warship ram associated with the Battle of the Aegates in 241 BC.

Context and history

The Florio family's connection with the Egadi tonnare began with a lease in 1841; Ignazio Florio bought Favignana and Formica with their fishing rights in 1874. The plant expanded through the late nineteenth century, with buildings designed by Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda and Filippo La Porta. After the Florio group's collapse, the complex passed to other owners, and processing continued into the late twentieth century. The Region of Sicily acquired the long-abandoned site in the 1990s and later restored it as a museum. A specialist library on tuna and the tonnare opened in 2023.