Aquileia, protests over photovoltaic park built near archaeological site

A chorus of protest is rising in Aquileia against a photovoltaic project that could jeopardize the area’s archaeological heritage and landscape. The alarm comes directly from the Aquileia Foundation, the private-law entity (whose founding partners are the Region, the Ministry of Culture, the Province of Udine and the Municipality of Aquileia) that manages the archaeological sites of the ancient city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. The plant, planned to be built in the San Zili-Casa Bianca locality, would cover an area of 210,000 square meters with a nominal capacity of 9,989 kWp and an estimated lifetime of 30-35 years. A nearly six-kilometer underground pipeline would connect the plant to the Belvedere primary cabin, also running through the town center.

The area affected by the project is reclaimed farmland, a landscape that would be drastically transformed by the installation of the plant. The main concern, however, concerns the proximity to the “buffer” zone of the UNESCO site of Aquileia, designated in 2018 to further protect the central archaeological area, a World Heritage Site since 1998.

As Cristiano Tiussi, director of the Aquileia Foundation, pointed out, and as reiterated by Friuli Venezia Giulia’s Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio, the land involved in the project contains important archaeological evidence. There stood the great Roman road that connected Aquileia to Trieste, lined with funerary enclosures belonging to prominent families, some of which were identified as early as the 19th century. Nearby, in 1956, the Great Mausoleum, found along that very route, was reconstructed. In addition, the planned pipeline would follow the route of SR 352, which coincides almost perfectly with the ancient maximum hinge of the Roman city, an area with a high probability of new archaeological discoveries, including funerary contexts related to early Christian cult buildings.

Opposition to the project

During the Services Conference coordinated by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, the Superintendence and the Municipality of Aquileia expressed opposition to the project. The Aquileia Foundation, a stakeholder as guardian of the site, reiterated its position in an official note, recalling that the Board of Directors approved in April 2024 a Management Plan proposing the expansion of the UNESCO site’s buffer zone. This proposal, now being evaluated by the Ministry of Culture and the UNESCO Office, makes the facility incompatible with the protection and enhancement needs of the area.

The President of the Aquileia Foundation, Roberto Corciulo, notes the counterproductive effects of the planned plant: “In recent years, the commitment and joint efforts of the Region, the Ministry, the Municipality, and the entities and institutions operating in Aquileia have unquestionably marked not only a growth of the site as a tourist and cultural attractor, but also of the awareness among citizens of its importance. The impulse to research, the acquisitions of land and real estate, and the valorizations of the conferred areas are delineating in an increasingly defined way the characters of the Archaeological Park of Aquileia, which is the statutory purpose of the Foundation. Therefore, we share the negative opinion that the Municipality and the Ministry of Culture, through the Soprintendenza archeologia belle arti e paesaggio del Friuli Venezia Giulia, have expressed. It seems paradoxical to me that a different and more respectful location for a photovoltaic park, which is to all intents and purposes an industrial plant, cannot be found for a World Heritage site. I also wonder how this choice can be reconciled with the high perceptual value of the Patriarchal Basilica and its tall bell tower, reported among the strengths of the UNESCO site as a visual centerpiece even from considerable distance and from every wide-ranging direction. It would be really serious if this improper choice had repercussions on the maintenance of those exceptional universal values that we all have a duty to transmit intact and unaltered to future generations, perhaps jeopardizing the very title of UNESCO heritage site as is happening with other sites.”

A heritage to be preserved

Aquileia, founded in 181 BC and becoming the ninth city of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, is one of Italy’s most important archaeological sites. Its ruins testify to the grandeur of a nerve center of antiquity, with a legacy that includes roads, necropolis, and early Christian architecture. The fate of the project is now in the hands of the institutions, which are called upon to find a solution that protects the past without hindering photovoltaics, taking into account the importance of alternative energy sources. The outcome of the Services Conference will be decisive for the future of Aquileia and its extraordinary cultural heritage.

“Aquileia is an exceptional, unique place,” says the Mayor of Aquileia, Emanuele Zorino, “so choices regarding the location of these plants should be made wisely and with respect for the history of the site and the surrounding area, which is more than two thousand years long. Of course, this is not to disavow the importance that renewable energy sources have on the energy transition being pursued by our country. At the same time, however, it should be pointed out that Aquileia and the surrounding territory are not just any place, but represent the cradle of our Region and the cultural reference of a much larger area of Central and Eastern Europe. These founding values would impose far greater sensitivity and regard than the current indistinct regulations on renewable energy installations allow. The impact that the plant in question would have from a landscape-environmental point of view would itself be strongly negative just as strongly negative would be the effects vis-à-vis the buffer zone of the UNESCO site and the World Heritage Site perimeter itself. The hypothesis of further enlargement of the buffer zone testifies to the desire of the Aquileia community to give even greater prominence and protection to the exceptional universal values that underlie Aquileia’s inscription on the UNESCO list. We have the vision and the plan for a Greater Aquileia capital of culture, one that is known as the most important Archaeological Park in Central Europe and certainly not for the photovoltaic park that defaces the landscape.”

Aquileia, protests over photovoltaic park built near archaeological site

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