Safe from photovoltaic park the archaeological site of Aquileia: the no of the Ministry of Culture

Protests had recently been raised against a photovoltaic project that could compromise Aquileia’s archaeological and scenic heritage. The plant, planned to be built in the San Zili-Casa Bianca locality, would have spread over 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 have connected the plant to the Belvedere primary substation, also running through the town. The land involved in the project, as Cristiano Tiussi, director of the Aquileia Foundation, had pointed out, and as the Friuli Venezia Giulia Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape had reiterated, includes important archaeological evidence.

Therefore, the Superintendence and the Municipality of Aquileia had expressed, during the Services Conference coordinated by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, an opinion against the project; the Aquileia Foundation, involved as custodian of the site, had also reiterated its position against it, recalling that the Board of Directors in April 2024 had approved a Management Plan that proposed the expansion of the UNESCO site’s buffer zone. The photovoltaic plant project was being evaluated by the Ministry of Culture.

In a note, the Ministry of Culture announced today that it opposes the application for the construction of the planned solar power plant in the Municipality of Aquileia. In particular, according to the opinion of the General Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, which was drawn up on the basis of the findings of the ABAP Superintendence of Friuli Venezia Giulia, “the area of intervention where the photovoltaic plant should be built insists on anagricultural area at very high archaeological risk, close to a context rich in elements of interest protected from a cultural and landscape point of view starting from the bell tower of the Patriarchal Basilica in the vicinity of the UNESCO site ’Archaeological Area of Aquileia and Patriarchal Basilica’, partially involving also the buffer zone protecting the site.”

The archaeological area of Aquileia and the Patriarchal Basilica has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. The Declaration of Significance, officially adopted in October 2016, explains why the UNESCO site of Aquileia is considered to be of outstanding universal value in historical and scientific terms. This aspect therefore justifies its permanent protection at the expense of the international community as a whole.

“Concretely,” reads the opinion of the Superintendence, "the risk that the rise of a facility of this magnitude could lead to the inclusion of the site of Aquileia in the list of World Heritage in Danger, an element capable of compromising the future development of the area and its allied industries.

Photo by Gianluca Baronchelli

Safe from photovoltaic park the archaeological site of Aquileia: the no of the Ministry of Culture

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