The former Tobacco Factory

Often, only women worked there. Bent under the weight of tight work rhythms and subjected to strict discipline. The "tabacchine," as they were called, are among the most intriguing protagonists of a Salento that has now disappeared, alive only in the memory of those who lived it. The memory lives on in what used to be their workplaces, belonging to the time when tobacco was the main agricultural crop. The tobacco factory in Melpignano was built in the 1930s on behalf of the partners of the company "Veris e Villani e compagni," which was the concessionaire for the area at the time. In these spacious and airy rooms, where the leaves were dried and worked on together, daily stories intertwined, along with confessions of secrets and frustrations. Stories of mysticism, tarantism, ignorance, and even women's emancipation in Salento. It's interesting to discover that it was right here, at the end of World War II, that the first struggles for better working conditions and higher wages by female workers began.

𝐀𝐕𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐖