I Trabucchi del Gargano
The Trabucco is an old fishing machine typical of the Gargano coast. It is cherished as treasure by the Gargano National Park and widespread in the lower Adriatic sea as well as in several locations on the north coast of the province of Bari.
The trabucco is a impressive building made of wood: it consists of a platform jutting out of the sea and anchored to the rock by large Aleppo pine logs. Two (or more) long arms, called antennas, jut out from it a few meters from the sea surface, and sustain a huge mesh net.
The different morphology of the Abruzzo and the Gargano coasts explains different types of Trabucco: in Gargano an extended platform is anchored to the rock longitudinally to the coast, with the antennas sticking out of it.
The original trabucco from Abruzzo, properly called “scale” , often insists on coasts which are less deep and therefore has a platform perpendicular to the coast, and the mesh net is much smaller than the Gargano’s.
According to some historians from Puglia, the trabucco is an invention imported by the Phoenicians.
The oldest documented presence dates back to the eighteenth century, a period in which the Abruzzo fishermen had to strive to design a fishing technique that was not subject to weather and sea conditions in the area.
The trabucchi allows fishing without entering the water: taking advantage of the rocky morphology of some fishing areas, they were built on the most prominent peaks and promontories, by throwing nets out to sea by means of a monumental wooden arm system.
The trabucco is traditionally built with Aleppo pine wood, the common pine tree in the mid Adriatic, because it is an almost inexhaustible material, due to the spread in the area, malleable, resistant to salt and elastic (must withstand strong gusts of mistral which sail the Adriatic sea).
Some trabucchi, now unused, were reconstructed in recent years, acquiring the role of tourist elements.