Altino, from April 1 the Archaeological Area reopens. And there will be tours organized as ... TV series

In the Veneto region, the archaeological area of Altino (Quarto d’Altino, Venice) reopens to the public: the archaeological areas will again be open to the public from April 1, and in the coming months the Cloaca will also be left on view while visits to the museum will continue with the “Altino a puntate” initiative.

The ancient pavements will be seen and the landing gate finally freed of the tensile structure that made it complicated to visit, but also the already well-known House of the Panther and soon the recently discovered Cloaca. The Archaeological Area of Altino, in addition to being once again accessible to the public, will then show itself refurbished. In fact, in these weeks to the replacement of the wooden balustrades and staircase of the decumanus archaeological area but to welcome visitors there will be a new signage with the museum’s graphics.

“We can see the first steps of a long-term path of what will be the archaeological park of Altino,” comments Marianna Bressan, director of the National Museum and Archaeological Area of Altino (Veneto Regional Museums Directorate), “the archaeological areas are changing their skin and this is just the beginning of a path of change that will still be medium-term and will revolutionize the use of spaces.”

That’s not all: at the same time as the reopening, excavations will begin again with a view to creating an ad hoc arrangement of the part of the cloaca designed to leave it on view for public enjoyment. Uncovered in the most recent excavations, the cloaca is a vaulted infrastructure (of which a few attachment bricks remain) with parapets, also made of bricks, one and a half meters high clearly visible and a pavement of trachyte slabs. At the bottom during the excavations, objects of daily use, combs, bone objects for body care, tableware and small decorated oil lamps, bone objects for body care, glass fragments, small bronze tools, pieces of craftsmen’s tools (such as a cleaver handle) ended up in the sewer through the large manholes of the period.

Meanwhile, innovations continue at the museum’s headquarters as well: while the exterior has been embellished with new stone artifacts (the stele of Axia, the base of an honorary statue of Carmine) the approach to the public has also changed. In fact, among other initiatives, as anticipated, a new visiting mode, "Altino in episodes," organized as a kind of TV series: in episodes, has started. “We offer one visit a month by the museum staff and another with me in the deposits or in the excavation,” explains Bressan, “this has had the immediate effect of building loyalty among people, who have subscribed to follow the fixed appointments.” Loyalty in short is working, even judging by the figures of subscriptions doubled since 2023.

The work came about as part of the Great Cultural Heritage Project under which the Ministry of Culture financed the activities needed to transform Altino into an archaeological park, and was entrusted to the firm PETRA of Padua, with work supervision by Massimo Dadà of the Soprintendenza archeologia belle arti e paesaggio.

Image: Altino. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Cervellin

Altino, from April 1 the Archaeological Area reopens. And there will be tours organized as ... TV series

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