Favignana island is essentially flat, crossed the center by a small training hill. The exploitation of deposits of limestone dates back to ancient times.

The period of maximum growth is between 1700 and 1950, thanks to the work of the Florio family, who began the materials in the creation of works which the palace of Favignana Florio and Villa Igea in Palermo.

Because of its hardness and compactness, but at the same time for its flexibility in being modeled, the limestone of Favignana was the foundation of countless buildings in Sicily.

Before the advent of the Borboni, who introduced in Sicily control over state-owned coastal zones, each quarryman chose his piece of coast where dig his quarry, thus being an entrepreneur and artisan together, deciding for themselves how they work and who sell the product .

The extraction of limestone employ a large number of masons, some of whom worked in open quarries, others in light of the acetylene in coves which winds for hundreds of meters into the earth's core.

It was a large group of workers so that the Holy Crucifix, their patron, became the saint of the island. It was thanks to their work that it was formed the environment that characterizes today the island of Favignana, the joint effort, the relationship between "pirriaturi (limestone quarry workers) and the limestone, which is transformed and becomes houses, palaces, walls and monuments.