Oil of Gallipoli. The history of the olive oil in salento by Davide Mengoli

Gallipoli since the beginning of the sixteenth century, was the largest European market in terms of production and marketing of olive oil, which was used in the vast majority , not for food use, but to illuminate the great cities of Europe so that London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam , Istanbul soon used the Salento oil to illuminate their streets, this until the end of the nineteenth century, when the arrival of electricity sent the export of the so-called lampante oil into crisis.

The production of this oil took place underground, where there were the optimal conditions of heat and humidity to produce an oil to be exported, oil mills that worked continuously from the end of September to the end of April.
Nothing was thrown away from the processing and even the by-product of the grinding and pressing of the olives was used to create a soap that later became famous as "Marseille soap" or in some cases it was used in wool mills. There were many soap makers in the city (Gallipoli), so much so that via Saponere still exists today, right next to the church of San Francesco. The great importance of the port for the oil trade brought various traders to the city, but also representatives of various European governments.

The trade in this product was so considerable that Pope Gregory XIII in 1581 and Pope Sixtus V in 1590 granted collective absolution to all those who, engaged in the operations, had not sanctified Sunday. Throughout the seventeenth century in the port of Gallipoli, up to 70 ships in a single day were exporting this precious oil.
In the following century the business became so big that Gallipoli become second in the kingdom after Naples, becoming ‘’Consulate of the Sea’’, on January 29th 1741. The famous painter Filippo Hackert, commissioned by the king, painted a canvas depicting the port of Gallipoli, this canvas, is now in the museum of San Martino in Naples. Up to 1923 the vice consulates of many European nations were based in Gallipoli: Austria, Denmark, France, England, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Holland, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway.
But the incredible work of the workers inside the underground oil mills soon created myths and legends. One of these was the Scjakùddhi, or according to the places carcalùru, lauru, monacizzu, scazzamurièddhu, uru.

The daemon of the Greeks, or the nightmare of the Latins, who during the night sat pressing on the chest, preventing breathing and causing bad dreams. The scjakùddhi was described as a very short being (Elf), even smaller than a dwarf, with a red bell on his head and well dressed.

He was an elf between the bizarre and the impertinent, bad with those who hindered him or revealed his cunning, beneficial with those who used tolerance. He liked to hang out in the stables where he often fell in love with the donkey, he liked best, stroking and feeding her on food stolen from the nearby stables and wove tails and manes. The scjakùddihi was the tutelary god of oil mills, especially the underground ones, his permanent home. Often, it was imagined that it was the soul of a dead man who had not received the sacraments.

The work took place in an unhealthy environment, with a constant temperature of about 19 ° C and a maximum humidity, in this environment, workers led by the ‘’nachiro’’ and animals did their work, the men with 6-hour shifts, mules, horses and donkeys blindfolded so as not to go crazy, they had 2-hour shifts, all this in a continuous cycle for 6-7 months a year.

Видео Oil of Gallipoli. The history of the olive oil in salento by Davide Mengoli канала Salento with Love