Mapping Memory: The Reuse of Sicily’s Tuna Fisheries, Part 2
This is the second installment in a three-part series about Sicily’s historic tuna fisheries. Click here to read Part 1.
Sicily’s tuna fisheries, or tonnare, are celebrated not only for their cultural significance; they are lauded, within Sicily, for their architecture. As protoindustrial coastal buildings built between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the tonnare represent a class of building unique to their region and function. Indeed, their architectural value is well established within Sicily, with many arguing for their preservation. My goal here, however, is to make a case for their transcontinental architectural significance. Beyond southern Italy, not many people are familiar with these buildings. Yet, I have found through my research that these structures share compelling characteristics with other building types around the Mediterranean, and even across the Atlantic. It is through tracing these shared features that one begins to understand the ways in which, thanks to Sicily’s history of repeated occupation and colonization (more on this later), the tuna fisheries have connections beyond Italy.
The tonnare are the product of a regional architectural lineage. Through fieldwork, I observed that while tonnare were sometimes designed by academically trained architects and engineers, many resemble other vernacular buildings found in Sicily, particularly those in rural agricultural settings. Yet, I wondered, is there a deeper connection underlying these different structures?
Figure 1. An example of a baglio, in Levanzo, Sicily. This is a more ornate example than perhaps was typically found, but displays the enclosed formation that was typical of the type. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Scholars have pointed to the architectural affinity between tonnare and what are known as masserie and bagli: rural, fortified agricultural complexes found in Sicily (Figure 1).[1] The baglio is an ancient typology, one that derives from Roman and Arab courtyard-centric settlements and developed over the centuries into fortress-like, self-sufficient compounds. The term itself betrays its feudal origins: baglio derives from the Sicilian word bagghiu, which comes from the Latin vallum or baiulus, for enclosed defensive settlement. Similarly, the masseria, which spread throughout southern Italy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, is also an enclosed agricultural complex (Figure 2). Both types were positioned at the center of agricultural estates throughout Sicily, from which their proprietors managed their agricultural production.
Figure 2. View of interior courtyard of a masseria. Figure by G. Vaccarino Gearty, 2022.
The similarities among tonnare, bagli, and masserie are striking. All were organized around a central, enclosed courtyard with one or two entrances. As attacks by rebel groups or bandits were common, the buildings had high walls and few exterior openings; all spaces were accessed via, and opened onto, the interior courtyard (Figure 3). All complexes accommodated similar functions, including production, storage, stables, religious space, and long-term housing for workers and the proprietor—allowing them to act, essentially, as self-sufficient towns. And all were built of similar materials—namely local stone, masonry, and wood—using traditional construction methods.
Given the different functions of the tonnara and baglio/masseria, there are some inherent differences between the two classes of buildings. Tonnare needed to be located in a dominant position upon the coast with direct access to the ocean. As such, tuna fisheries sometimes had a more open configuration than the traditional baglio/masseria. The latter, often located in isolated, rural parts of the island, needed to be enclosed from a defensive standpoint. While sometimes also in isolated locations, tonnare were often positioned near or at the edge of towns and urban centers, and closer to help should they experience an attack. Thus, many tuna fisheries have more of an “L” configuration; others aren’t organized around a courtyard at all (Figures 4 and 5). What is more, as tonnare modernized in the late nineteenth century and facilities for canning tuna—requiring multiple types of machinery—were added, they further departed from the traditional baglio/masseria model.
Figure 4. A figure-ground map of the Tonnara di Bonagia, which has a loose configuration of spaces around a central courtyard. Graphic by G. Vaccarino Gearty, 2022.
Why such architectural affinities between these two classes of buildings? One explanation pertains to function: tuna fisheries had many of the same requirements that bagli and masserie did. The latter had storage spaces for grain, tools, and other agricultural products; the former had storage areas for nets, fishing tools, and tuna conservation materials like salt and ice. Moreover, both farmers and fishermen lived on-site for many months at a time, requiring longer-term “amenities.” The builders of the tonnare were clearly familiar with the baglio/masseria typology and, knowing that tuna fisheries had similar functional requirements, simply adapted them to their uses.
Figure 5. An aerial view of the Tonnara di Santa Panagia, which doesn’t follow the enclosed courtyard configuration at all, but consists of a conglomeration of buildings on an isolated bay in southeastern Sicily. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Another explanation for such architectural similarities is that, in Sicily, agriculture and tuna fishing were linked. As the tuna fishing season lasted for only a part of the year, many fishermen worked as farmers during the off-season. Thus, it is common to find crossovers between the two industries, at least regarding tools used; it follows that such crossovers could apply to the architecture, as well.[2] Especially in the late nineteenth century, tonnare developed relationships with bagli that produced the olive oil needed for canning tuna.
Ultimately, it makes sense that the tonnare would resemble other rural buildings in southern Italy and Sicily. However, tonnare can also be associated with another type of architecture, across the Atlantic: Spanish buildings in North America. Both Sicily and portions of North America were ruled by Spain, the former from the early 1300s to the 1730s and the latter from the 1500s to the early 1800s.[3] The haciendas in particular, found throughout Spanish colonies in the western United States, Mexico, and South America, is a building type bearing intriguing similarities with tonnare, bagli, and masserie.
“Thanks to Sicily’s history of repeated occupation and colonization…tuna fisheries have connections beyond Italy.”
Like a baglio, the hacienda is a walled agricultural compound often built in a remote rural setting. Built of stone or adobe, these complexes were typically organized around a central courtyard with one entry/exit and few exterior openings.[4] In many cases, like Sicilian agricultural complexes, haciendas comprised the landowner’s residence surrounded by laborers’ homes, a church, and even a school. Haciendas sometimes evolved into fortified towns, as their enclosed arrangement made them easy to defend in territories with open hostilities between the Spanish and the Native Americans.[5] Meanwhile, scholars have long argued that the type may have originally derived from North African buildings that the Arabs brought to Spain in the eighth century.[6]
Such shared features—fortified agricultural compound, internal courtyard, similar arrangement and types of spaces—among these buildings in Sicily and the New World do not simply point to the breadth of Spain’s sphere of colonial influence. They indicate that all of these building types participated in a shared conversation over many centuries about food production, accommodation of workers, and architecture that spanned continents and oceans.
Notes
[1] Federico Fazio, I Luoghi del Tonno: Santa Panagia e le Tonnare della Sicilia Sud-orientale, (Siracusa: LetteraVentidue, 2021), 83; Gianluca Serra, “Bagli e Tonnare: Scambi Architettonici e Funzionali Nella Storia Economica nel Litorale Siciliano,” Cosedimare: il Mediterrano Tra Storia, Immagini, e Mito, no date, www.cosedimare.com, via Internet Archive, captured May 10, 2006.
[2] As learned from conversation with tour guide at Museo Ryolo, in Milazzo, Sicily.
[3] Jamie Mackay, The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean History (New York: Verso, 2021), 88, 95, 125.
[4] Virginia McAlester and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Knopf, 2000), 129-133.
[5] Joe S. Graham, “Southwestern Hispanics,” in America’s Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups That Built America, ed. by Dell Upton (New York: Preservation Press, 1986), 92.
[6] McAlester and McAlester, 129.
Citation
Giuliana Vaccarino Gearty, “Mapping Memory: The Reuse of Sicily’s Tuna Fisheries, Part 2,” PLATFORM, May 22, 2023.
