Production and trade of coral, turquoise, cameos and related materials.
The history of coral: between legend and reality
Medusa, a story of blood ...
According to mythology, this precious stone was born from the blood of Medusa, beheaded by Perseus, who managed to behead her without looking into her eyes, but by observing the image reflected in the shield; when he escaped, the hero placed the gorgon's head in a sack, covering it with seaweed and reeds born underwater, which when in contact with the blood petrified, taking on the red color, and branched like snakes: "even now the nature of corals retains this characteristic, that is, they acquire rigidity when in contact with the air, so that what was reed under water becomes stone above »explained Ovid more than two thousand years ago. Well, it is no coincidence that the red coral, born from the blood of Medusa, is still today called 'gorgonian' or 'blood stone'. Furthermore, coral, as well as the head of the Medusa, has superstitious value, so it would be good, to ward off evils of any species, to have a coral necklace with a beautiful gorgon head for pendant.
Torre del Greco, city of "red gold"
To cover an important space in the processing of coral was Torre del Greco, the village at the foot of Vesuvius which, thanks to the fishing and processing of this red stone, became over time the most important world center for the processing and production of coral in Torre del Greco, the town on the slopes of Vesuvius, has been for centuries
handed down, from father to son, the noble art of coral.
​
The coral processing of Torre del Greco is the daughter of an ancient tradition of Torresi fishermen who left for long fishing missions in the seas of Sardinia, the Amalfi Coast, Capri and North Africa, with the intention of reselling the precious marine organisms. in the ports of Genoa and Livorno.