The “Manifattura dei Marinati” Factory was established in 1905 with the aim of processing (cooking and marinating) all the fish caught in the Comacchio Valleys. In the 1920s and 1930s, the factory produced and delivered more than 1,000 tons of different types of fish to Italy, Europe and as far away as New York, in wooden barrels and from 1927 in the characteristic metal cans.

The most iconic and characteristic place is the so-called “Fire Room”, where 12 large fireplaces, each with 17 pairs of hooks for hanging and cooking the large skewers filled with eels, remain as a reminder of the long and very particular cooking procedure that the workers had to take care of. The most delicate phases of the entire process, cooking and barreling, were performed only by female workers.
The Factory closed in 1992 and in 2004 the Municipality of Comacchio and the Po Delta Park recovered and renovated the large rooms, transforming them into a Museum. But the desire not to “shut out the fires” was successful, because a small laboratory still works in the Factory and “keeps the fires burning”, preserving the traditional way of processing the fish of the valleys.

The Laboratory is managed by a local Social Cooperative that uses work as a social tool to involve and develop the self-esteem and skills of weak and disadvantaged people.