Lodi, MiBACT gives okay to the construction of the Laus Pompeia Archaeological Park

A new archaeological park is about to be born in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the new Archaeological Park of Laus Pompeia, which, thanks to the allocation of 1.1 million euros by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism as part of the strategic plan Great Projects Cultural Heritage, will rise in the municipality of Lodi Vecchio, in the province of Lodi. The area involved, we learn from MiBACT, is about 16,000 square meters: the archaeological excavations of the Basilica and the Laus Pompeia Archaeological Museum are already located here. The goal now is to complete the Archaeological Park.

In particular, the funds secured by MiBACT will allow, meanwhile, for the recovery of an abandoned farmhouse that will become part of the museum: services, a terrace, and a multipurpose floor that will probably be dedicated to exhibitions, events, or workshops will be housed here. In addition, the resources allocated by the ministry will be used to start a new excavation campaign that aims to unearth the Roman baths of Laus Pompeia.

The history of Laus Pompeia is ancient: the flourishing Roman municipium located a short distance from present-day Lodi in turn had Celtic origins. The city survived even after the fall of the Roman Empire, but it was devastated in the 12th century, first by the Milanese, and then in 1158 by Frederick Barbarossa’s army, which razed the city to the ground, forcing the inhabitants to move further east and found what would become present-day Lodi, while Laus Pompeia, now reduced to a pile of rubble that served as building material for the new Lodi, became known as Lauda Vetus, or Old Lodi. The remains of Laus Pompeia resurfaced starting in the 1950s through a number of excavation campaigns: in 2007 excavations were opened and in 2014 it was the turn of the current museum, which is housed in a rural complex built in the 18th century and from whose windows one can see the ancient forum of the Roman city and the remains of the cathedral, and which shows the public the most significant finds that emerged from the campaigns, telling the story of the ancient city.

So, thanks to funding from the ministry, the history of Laus Pompeia is now enriched with a new chapter: the transformation of excavations and museum into an Archaeological Park, which will therefore have a unified itinerary and will be able to show the public hitherto hidden testimonies of the city’s illustrious past.

Lodi, MiBACT gives okay to the construction of the Laus Pompeia Archaeological Park

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