PACECO: Historical notes
The history of the small village officially begins in 1602, when the Viceroy of Spain concedes to Don Placido Fardella the & ldquo; LICENZIA POPULANDI & rdquo ;. To honor his wife Maria Pacheco and Mendoza, Prince Fardella decides to call the new settlement Paceco. An elevated place is chosen and healthy to defend themselves mainly from malaria. The choice turns out to be happy, because the new village attracts many inhabitants from the surrounding areas.
After about a century, Paceco can already count almost 800 inhabitants, even if it has known a period of stagnation, due to the siege of Trapani by the Spaniards who use the village as military base. In the second half of the & rsquo; 700 Paceco begins to grow again, much from double the number of inhabitants who come largely from Trapani and therefore his development is partly intertwined with the events of the neighboring city, whose lords do not see of good eye the development of the new agglomeration.
The story of Paceco goes on without trauma until 1812, when the village is transformed into a municipality. Even if the municipality maintains its predominant agricultural vocation intact, this date represents from one part the decline of the feudal system based on the power of families, on the other the advent of the bourgeoisie and with it the beginning of the modern era which will see several passages significant. One of these is the Unity of Italy with Garibaldi's company in Sicily, in which several peaceful citizens participate. So the socio-economic life of Paceco is unravels with alternating events in harmony with the rest of Italy until 1880, when it was created the new railway line that brings a certain impulse to economic development, increasing the export of agricultural products.
However, the living conditions of the farmers remain so difficult that some start the road of emigration to North America, others began as early as 1890 to create companies of mutual aid, cooperatives and leagues to improve their social situation. Hero undisputed of this troubled and rich phase of social movements is Giuseppe Drago di Ferro who he struggles with all his strength to make the country grow. The outbreak of the First World War slows down socialist activism and brings hundreds of peacekeepers to the battle front against Austria: some of them lose their lives on the Piove to defend their homeland. The end of the war sees the the rekindling of socialist and popular movements that began to die out from 1923 onwards with the advent of fascism; however, the seeds of the associations carried on by the peasants and women remain their Rural Banks. Prestigious figures of this phase are Sen. Pietro Grammatico and Giacomo Spatula.
Today Paceco continues to attract inhabitants from neighboring municipalities due to its unfolding location strategic, compared to other locations. While maintaining an agricultural connotation, the municipality stands trying to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by tourism that has its center in attraction in the salt flats of Nubia.
For further information: http://www.pacecoweb.it/paceco/
The salt pans of Trapani and Paceco: a unique place with a thousand suggestions
A remnant of a deeply & quot; revisited & quot; nature by man. A landscape, a place of production, an aesthetic appeal. The Saline Oasis (about 1000 hectares) is located within a Site of Community Importance in the Municipality of Nubia-Paceco and Trapani. A journey through the pools, channels, windmills, beams; a play of colors that at sunset are the most beautiful in the Mediterranean. Walking along the canals of the salt pans of Trapani, the only perceptible sounds are those of the sea waves And of the seagulls. The rest is just horizons, mountains of salt, and flying birds.
The oriented nature reserve & ldquo; Saline di Trapani and Paceco & rdquo; was established in 1995 ed managed by WWF Italy. And & rsquo; divided into 2 zones, of which 700 ha of zone A, coinciding with the saline tanks, and about 300 ha of zone B. The salt pans due to their high environmental value are subject to various protection constraints: the Ministry of the environment declared the wetland of the reserve of the Saline di Trapani and Paceco site & ldquo; of international importance & rdquo; to the senses of the & ldquo; Ramsar Convention & rdquo ;. They are also among the Sites of Community Interest as well as among the Special Protection Areas provided for by the Birds Directive.
The basins used for the extraction of salt, given the techniques used (which are those traditional in use for centuries) and the particular geomorphology of the coast (which saw the presence of lagoons and coastal marshes), constitute an environment that, although largely artificial, hosts a great biological diversity, from the microscopic level of bacteria to the macroscopic level of birds. Yes it is extremely specialized organisms for this environment, and for the various degrees of salinity present in the different tanks, or (as in the case of birds) found in this environment stop and food during the migrations.
The salt flats are a very important resting place for thousands of birds during their migration either autumn and spring, therefore the area is of particular ornithological interest; in fact there are 208 species surveyed so far, many wintering (flamingos, spoonbills, white herons greater, egrets, marsh harriers, waders and more than 5,000 ducks) and other nesting (avocets, knights of Italy, fraticelli, fratini, calandrella). We remember the Bittern, the Little Egret, the Great White Heron, the Spatula, the Flamingo, the Knight of Italy, the Avocetta (taken at symbol della Riserva), the Rosy Seagull, the Little Tern, the Kingfisher. Among the fish it is present Aphanius fasciatus, L & rsquo; entomofauna includes numerous species of endemic and / or rare insects such as Cephalota circumdata imperialis, Cephalota Costiea goudoti, Pterolepis elymica, Teia dubia arcerii. Finally, the small crustacean Artemia salina has been and still is the subject of great interest, both in terms systematic and pure research and applied research.
Contacts and Hours
Open to the public for guided tours, all year round, by reservation, Wednesday, Friday, and
Saturday.
Oasis entrance: Provincial Road 21 Trapani-Marsala - Maria Stella Mill Visitor Center - 91027
Nubia-Paceco (Tp)
- Phone: 0923/867700
- E-mail: salineditrapani@wwf.it
- Website: www.salineditrapani.it
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wwf.trapanipaceco
Around the historic center of Trapani
The landscape of Trapani amazes for its extraordinary beauty. The configuration of the city a double sickle that extends into the sea almost to divide the Tyrrhenian from the Mediterranean, leads back to its ancient name Drepanon, born from the myth when Ceres, goddess of the crops, desperately searching of her of the kidnapped daughter Proserpina lost, right here, the scythe that she was carrying in her hand. The true spectacle are the Egadi islands and the salt pans that form the backdrop to the south-west sea morning at sunrise and sunset, offering exciting suggestions and colors especially in summer. Precisely in this sea area near the island of Favignana there it was the naval battle of 241 BC. between Romans and Carthaginians which marked the end of the dominion of Carthage. Distance from Cafisu B & amp; B: about 7 km, reachable in about 10 minutes.
Erice, the ancient Elymian capital
Erice is famous all over the world for its enchanting village, breathtaking landscapes, sweets and typical ceramics and the "Ettore Maiorana" scientific research center. Erice was a time also the religious capital of the legendary Elimo people. According to Thucydides, it was founded by the Trojan exiles, who fleeing to the Mediterranean Sea would find the ideal place for settle there; according to the legend, the Trojans would then have given life to the people of Elimi. Virgil mentions her in the Hibiscus, with Aeneas touching her twice: the first of her for the death of her father Anchises, a year later for the games in her honor. Virgil in canto V tells that in an era even more remote stands Hercules himself in the famous fight with the giant Erice, precisely in the place where the young and presumptuous Darete and the elderly Entello challenged each other to the basket. In ancient, together with Segesta, which seems to have a contemporary foundation, was the most important city of the Elimi, in particular, was the center where religious rites were celebrated. Distance from Cafisu B & amp; B: about 15 km, reachable in about 20 minutes.
The Egadi islands: Favignana, Levanzo and Marettimo
For the Greeks, they represented the borders of the known world. For the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians, they were important commercial bases. The Romans made it their defensive bulwark against the armies of Hamilcar and Annibale Barca. And so on, passing through the Arabs, the Normans and the Spaniards, whose traces are still found today in the surnames of the inhabitants. The first, the largest, with his own vague form of butterfly, it is Favignana, which the ancients called Favonia. The island is a microcosm to discover, with the ancient establishments of the Tonnara Florio, the remote fortress of Santa Caterina, the Madrice square that pulsates with the daily life of the islanders and comes alive in the evening of the walks of the guests. And again the old tuff quarries and coves bathed in water blue and transparent - like the beautiful Cala Rossa and Cala Azzurra. Just a little further, here is Levanzo, the smallest of the three and the closest to the port of Trapani, with its houses white nestled on the harbor full of placid colored goiters. Levanzo, or a handkerchief of land that holds some of the most ancient testimonies of human presence in Sicily: the rock figures of men and animals which, painted and graffitied on the walls of the Grotta del Genoese, they refer us to the Mesolithic, its dark rites, its wild and mysterious life. Marettimo, the farthest and also the highest and most rocky is a silent and peaceful island, where the days are spent by the sea or walking along the paths bordered by overflowing vegetation. Like Levanzo, it is ideal for diving enthusiasts, made adventurous by the variety of the seabed and of the coast pierced by hundreds of caves. Distance from Cafisu B&B: from 20 (for Levanzo) 75 minutes (for Marettimo) by hydrofoil.
Segesta, immortal glory of the Elymians
The ancient political capital of the Elimo people, of clear Greek / Phoenician origin, which dominates still today the summit of Monte Barbaro, giving the visitor an evocative journey through time at the time of Magna Graecia and the Punic Wars. Segesta is a historic city no longer inhabited, founded from the Elimi and located in the north-western part of Sicily. The old city stands on the Monte Bàrbaro, in the municipality of Calatafimi-Segesta, about ten kilometers from Alcamo and Castellammare del Golfo. Of particular beauty are the temple, in Doric style, and the theater, partly excavated in the rock of the hill. Distance from Cafisu B&B: about 35 km, reachable in about 30 minutes (via highway)
Marsala, city of wine and ancient Punic capital
Known throughout the world for its fortified wine and for the great tradition in the cultivation and winemaking, Marsala is a city rich in history and charm. It was the place of the landing of Garibaldi in Sicily and, in pre-Roman times, the capital of the Phoenicians of Sicily. Marsala is a town of 82,322 (source ISTAT, February 2007) inhabitants in the province of Trapani, on the west coast of Sicily; it is the fifth Sicilian municipality in terms of number of inhabitants, there 63rd largest city in Italy (See Top 100 Italian Municipalities by Population), as well as the greatest agricultural, industrial and commercial center of the province of Trapani. In about 250 km squares of extension it has a rich cultural and landscape heritage.