Comacchio celebrates 100 years of the Etruscan city of Spina

Overlooking the Adriatic Sea, Spina was one of the most important cities of the Po Valley Etruria. A favored port of Athens on the Po Delta and the Adriatic, it became the hub of trade between Greece and the Po Valley, the gateway of “Greekness” to the West and the site of ancient myths such as that of Daedalus and Icarus. More than 4,000 tombs have been found here since 1922, in which numerous Attic ceramics have been found, and since 1956 the settlement of Spina has been the subject of investigations that continue to amaze. To celebrate Spina’s 100th anniversary, from May 2022 the town of Comacchio (near which the ancient Etruscan port is located) and its territory will be the site of events and special novelties for visitors to immerse themselves in the Etruscan universe of the ancient town.

The exhibition at Palazzo Bellini in Comacchio.

To tell the story of Spina’s 100th anniversary, the Art Gallery of Palazzo Bellini in Comacchio will host the exhibition Spina 100 - From Myth to Discovery: a century after the discovery of the Etruscan city, from May 28 to October 16, 2022, with an exhibition itinerary articulated in a sequence of rooms to relive the discovery of ancient Spina and its treasure. A journey from its foundation, around the mid-6th century B.C., to its role as Athens’ privileged port in the northern Adriatic, its decline around the mid-3rd century B.C., the excavations with the discovery in Valle Trebba of the first tomb during some land reclamation works in the Comacchio Valleys, and the whole archaeological epic.

Open Air Section of the Ancient Delta Museum

An Open Air Section of the Ancient Delta Museum will be inaugurated in the area of Stazione Foce in the Comacchio Valleys, where tourists and enthusiasts will be able to admire live a full-scale reconstruction of a cross-section of ancient Spina with Etruscan houses made of wood and marsh reeds, built following the clues that emerged from archaeological investigations. Visitors will thus be able to walk in an environment very similar to the one that Greeks and Etruscans admired 2,500 years ago, retracing a journey through time that will then transport visitors from the ancient Etruscan buildings, with its alternating streets and canals, to the evocative casoni of the Po Delta Park with its unique landscapes, to Comacchio, the city on the water where the Museo Delta Antico houses among wonderful rooms an Etruscan section dedicated to Spina. The Open Air Archaeological Park was created within the framework of the “VALUE” project, which sees the collaboration of the Municipality of Comacchio with the Superintendence, Regional Directorate of Museums Emilia Romagna and the Universities of Ferrara, Bologna and Venice, which will undertake new research campaigns to better investigate the structure of the ancient settlement of Spina and its territory.

There will also be many collateral events, such as Spina Thursdays, afternoon conversations in the pronaos of the Museo Delta Antico in Comacchio (at 6:30 p.m. from June to September 2022), conferences, historical representations in a touristic key, and numerous surprises. To unveil Spina as a place of Mediterranean connectivity, functional to the understanding of the phenomena of mobility and contact between objects, people and ideas belonging to different cultures and composites, in close mutual dialogue across sea, river and land routes.

On the Visit Comacchio website www.visitcomacchio.it tips and tourist packages to discover the area.

For information: Visit Comacchio Strada Statale 309 Romea, Comacchio (FE) Tel: 0533 307030, 346 0921618 E-mail: info@visitcomacchio.it. Web site: www.visitcomacchio.it

Image: the Museum of the Ancient Delta in Comacchio

Comacchio celebrates 100 years of the Etruscan city of Spina

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