Tonnara di Santa Panagia

A splendid anecdote exists on the Tonnara di Santa Panagia, an ancient and fragile wonder.

About the end of 1700, Domenique Vivant Denon, scholar, writer and critic, was in Syracuse following and studying the Mura Dionigiane (Dionysian Walls) to find the route built by the tyrant Dionysius I, in his book “Viaggio in Sicilia”, writes: “The more we advanced along the Trogilo port the more the traces of the walls became evident; and after passing the Tonnara, called “Santa Buonacia”, which is a place where the sea, returning to the city, forms a small narrow and deep inlet, we found the famous walls erected by Dionysius. ”

Denon calls “Santa Buonacia” Santa Panagia, the Syracusan neighborhood that corresponds to the ancient district of Tiche, north-west of the beautiful Sicilian city. Santa Buonacia: from the Greek “pan” – everything – and “àghia” – saint: Mary, the “all saint”.

Here, since the beginning of the XII century, the first tonnara was built. Rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, it lived years of splendor until its closure.

The place is currently under renovation and closed to the public, but the traveler can still enjoy the grandeur of the ruins visible from a stretch of rocky coast, the one on which it is located, among the most fascinating and complex of Siracusa.