Favignana Harbour

Favignana (Sicilian: Favignana, Italian: Favignana) is a comune including three islands (Favignana, Marettimo and Levanzo) of the Aegadian Islands, southern Italy. It is situated approximately 7 km west of the coast of Sicily, between Trapani and Marsala, the coastal area where the Stagnone Lagoon and the international airport of Trapani, are sited.

The island is famous for its tuna fisheries and is now a popular tourist destination with frequent hydrofoil connections to the mainland.

In ancient times Favignana was called Aegusa, meaning “goats’ island”. The present name is derived from Favonio, an Italian name for the foehn wind. It was colonised by the Phoenicians, who used it as a stopping point on their trans-Mediterranean trading routes.

The island was fought over during the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. On 10 March 241 BC, a major naval battle was fought a short distance offshore between the two powers. Two hundred Roman ships under the consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus met and decisively defeated a much larger Carthaginian fleet of 400 ships, with the Romans sinking 120 Carthaginian vessels and taking 10,000 prisoners. So many dead Phoenicians washed ashore on the northeastern part of Favignana that the shoreline there acquired the name “Red Cove” (Cala Rossa) from the bloodshed. The Romans took possession of the island under the terms of the treaty that ended the war.
The island is famous for its caves of calcarenite rock (locally known as “tufo”) and the ancient fishing technique of tonnara, originally of Arab origin, with the trapping and mattanza (massacre) of bluefin tuna. Favignana is one of the few places in Italy where this is still done. Because the island consists mainly of calcareous rocks, there are few beaches on the island; however, it is a popular site for scuba diving, snorkeling, and for day trips from nearby Trapani.

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