A referenced timeline of the Gallipoli tuna fishery (tonnara), from the Red Book to the last lowering of the nets. Every step is documented by its archival and bibliographic sources.
Date: Iron Age / Pre-Roman era
The first funnel-shaped traps built by the Messapian peoples along the natural inlets of Gallipoli: the form of the fixed tonnara has its Mediterranean archetypes here.
In the sea pertaining to the fief of Nardò, near the port of Culumena, tuna fishing is practised by fishermen from Taranto, who also catch little tunny, sardines and longfin tuna there.
The Red Book of the University (municipality) of Gallipoli records the charter of Charles V protecting the monopoly over the jurisdictional waters: the Aragonese and Spanish royal concessions officially regulate the lowering of the tonnara.
The Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation) by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis portrays the Salento coast, the Gulf of Taranto and the port of Gallipoli at the height of the tonnara's fortune.
The Gallipoli tonnara becomes the largest in Apulia: into the nets of the funnel, stretched for 1,600 metres, even fin whales and monk seals used to fall.
In the stretch of sea off Nardò, the Santa Caterina tonnara is added, almost contemporary with the one at Porto Cesareo, amid the vicissitudes of kings, local administrators, nobles and rising landowners.
Most of the tonnare of the Ionian sea cease to exist during the 19th century, with the exception of Gallipoli, which continues its activity.
The record drawn up by the municipal chancellor Carlo Mazzarella and signed by the mayor Francesco Pasca attests the transfer of the municipality's entire ancient archive to the depository of the then provincial archive.
The period photographs of Eugenio Interguglielmi document tuna fishing with nets and the concluding rite of the mattanza: the very same gestures of the tonnarotti of Gallipoli.
The arrival of motorised industrial fishing leads to the definitive dismantling of the fixed Salento tonnara: the age-old rite of the mattanza becomes intangible cultural memory.
A cultural heritage, historical memory and eco-museum project: the deeds, the photographs and the voices of the tonnarotti once again tell the story of the tonnara to new generations and to scholars.
Every entry reports the date or period, a summary of the facts and the source that documents them: archival deeds (Red Book, municipal records), cartographic documents (Piri Reis, W.658), period photographs and bibliographic studies.
Entries labelled as the "museum's historiographical tradition" derive from the texts and materials curated by the Multimedia Museum of the Tonnara and available on the site's pages; the others refer to published and archival sources listed in the bibliography.
The Museum welcomes scholars for access to non-digitised materials (Red Book I and II, Tonnara Comunale fascicles), available for consultation on site: use the contact form under Get Involved.