Have you ever wondered how many inhabitants Favignana has? Well, we’ll talk about it today in this article, where we’ll also discover many more interesting facts about this beautiful Sicilian island. Favignana, called “Faugnana” in dialect, is an island of Italy belonging to the Egadi archipelago, in Sicily, and it is the main island of the Egadi Islands archipelago located 7 km off the western coast of Sicily, between Trapani and Marsala.
The island of Favignana has an area of ??19 km² and a coastline of about 33 km, rugged and rich in cavities and caves. Speaking of the island’s name, we know that it derives from the Latin “favonius” (which means west wind), a term with which the Romans indicated the warm wind blowing from the west.
Anciently, the name of Favignana was “Egusa”, from the Greek “Aigousa” which literally means “goat island”, given their abundance on the island. However, it was also known by other various names such as Aponiana, Katria, Gilia, and is even mentioned by numerous important writers in history. Another interesting aspect is that the painter Salvatore Fiume called it a “butterfly on the sea” because of its characteristic shape.
The traditional Mediterranean architectures of this island, characterized by white plaster and blue or green windows, are also an object of rediscovery and great valorization, and we also know that the landscape is protected by the superintendence for cultural heritage.
The island, mostly covered with Mediterranean scrub consisting of bushy shrubs and numerous forests of maritime pines, has even established itself as a very important tourist destination, the dream of every holiday. The village, moreover, is built all around a natural inlet where the port is structured, on whose banks are also the buildings of the ancient tuna fisheries of the Florio family.
How many are the inhabitants of Favignana and what are their names?
Regarding the theme of the island’s flora and fauna, we can say that it is quite barren and hosts typical Mediterranean scrub; it has vegetation consisting of wild olive trees, mastic trees, and carob trees, and there are some interesting endemics such as sea cabbage, sea daffodil, and Boccone fennel.
In the eastern area of ??the island, there are also many underground gardens, well-kept and cultivated inside the tuff quarries which have now been completely abandoned, and among these is the “Garden of the Impossible”. It is one of the very few smaller Sicilian islands where a population of Sicilian emerald toads is present.
But why is this island so loved and frequented by people from all over the world? Well, surely the reasons are many, and we’ll talk about them in the next articles, but one aspect that attracts many tourists is the use of bicycles to tour the island. In fact, once arrived at the port, you can find several rentals offering bikes at affordable rates that will allow you to connect with the island and its nature.
Finally, to answer the initial question about the inhabitants of Favignana, we know that they are called “favignanesi” and they are approximately 4,170. This is because the municipality of Favignana is a very small municipality with an area of ??37 km², located precisely in the province of Trapani (TP).
