Fisculo

The ancient underground oil production – The fisculum

The fisculum is a sort of disc of vegetable fibre, once used to separate the oil from the pomace. In essence it is as if it were a round and flat basket, approximately donut-shaped, made up of two overlapping discs sewn together from the outer edge. In the central part, however, the two discs are not sewn and have a hole, which can have variable diameters.
Salento has an ancient culture of oil production which in the past took place in underground oil mills (trappeti) (located underground). The olives brought to the oil mill were placed in the “tank” and then crushed by large stone wheels turned by animals (milling). The fisculi were filled with the mixture obtained (olive paste). Then these large circular straw containers filled with dough were placed under the press (“torchio”) to be squeezed (cold pressing). The liquid part that came out was the olive oil, while the part that remained inside the fisculum was the pomace.
The original function of the fisculum, therefore, was to separate the oil from the pomace. The masters who made these hemp containers by hand were called “fisculari”.
Now other methods are used in the oil mills and the fisculi, which have been produced only industrially for years, are almost no longer needed. Consequently, even the fisculars no longer exist. Actually no, there is only one left who in his workshop carries on the family tradition of fiscularo, creating beautiful fisculi which today, however, perform a purely decorative function (for info on how to pay a visit to an ancient fiscularo’s workshop click here ).
At Corte Manfredi, in Alessano, it is possible to admire some of these wonderful handcrafted fisculi warming the atmosphere of some rooms (5A, 5B) with their decorative effect.