Page 15 - Caorle Journal Luglio 2023

Scoperte Incantevoli | 15

THE CASONI, THE ANCIENT AND lagoon with the horizontal segments of their roofs: men, in fact, drew
straight lines for their homes, even in the middle of nowhere, even for
CHARACTERISTIC DWELLINGS OF THE a few months of the year. Thus, huts stand out and cut the landscape…
LAGOON FISHERMEN they are the result of the rigid hand of men, even in the world of f ish
and the lagoon.
A life made up of sloping roofs from September to December, thatched
shelters and a f ireplace: this was the reality that the f ishermen of At the entrance to Caorle, inside Parco del Pescatore, a model of a large hut
Caorle had to face when they moved to the lagoon in autumn to catch has been set up; it was rebuilt according to the rules of local tradition to
the fish that swam towards the sea. Fraìma is the name with which the preserve it; you can visit it to get to know how fishermen used to live in the
Venetians call the period in autumn when fish swims from the internal lagoon during the fraìma period.
lagoon basins to the Adriatic sea, a period when - consequently - the
f ishermen moved towards the lagoon. A reverse motion that re-es-
tablished the laws of nature where shoals still determined the life of
men making them move and, consequently, forcing them to give up
the comforts of sedentary life. The casoni (the fishermen’s huts) thus
represent the last example of an ancient habit now disappeared, or
overturned by time; while today f ishing is excessive, intensive and
often greatly maximized, the Caorle lagoon still keeps its traditions
with its ancient huts. Huts are the typical buildings that were used
as a shelter and storage for nets and fishing equipment when needed:
they often became also real houses. A single room with a marsh reed
roof, usually with an entrance door, two windows, a poor f loor often
in packed earth and a f ireplace in the centre: in short, a single and
dark room with an external bathroom, an autumn dwelling without
any comfort but completely integrated in the natural environment.
The Caorle lagoon, which fascinated Hemingway so much, still hosts
several huts, some of which can even be visited. They were built fol-
lowing the logic of the descent of the fish towards the sea, to effectively
catch it, therefore, in some cases, they were isolated - to better domi-
nate the stretches where the fishing activities were carried out - while
others are grouped, as happens in Falconera or Isola dei Pescatori,
at the conf luence of the Palangon and Nicesolo canals (also called
Canalon). Thus, becoming much more than simple huts, they blend
in with nature for their colours and marsh reed roofs but stand out
for their robust geometry, tracing straight lines in the middle of the