Archaeological park in Leporano

Saturo is a locality of Marina di Leporano, in the province of Taranto and hosts a coastal promontory included in the Archaeological Park of the same name. The establishment of a Park underlines the very important historical and archaeological value of the site in question, consisting of a large river valley rich in evidence from the Neolithic to the early Middle Ages. The restoration and enhancement project of the Archaeological Park of Saturo was part of a broader perspective of interaction between the Taranto Archaeological Museum and some sites in the Taranto area, to allow an intelligible and more in-depth knowledge of the historical and cultural reality of the area. The intervention is due to two needs: to conserve, through conservative restoration operations, the multiple cultural assets present in the Park and at the same time improve the habitat of the coastal area; to complete this operation it was necessary to make the park accessible by creating services compatible with the particularity of the place and make the area visitable thanks to calibrated routes to satisfy both the needs of specialized users and the common visitor, aiming for a sustainable design and a non-invasive insertion (respectful of the peculiar landscape context, characterized by a slight hill to the northeast, by the presence of native vegetation typical of the Mediterranean scrub and by dry stone walls). The interventions carried out were:

• conservative restoration of the Saturo Tower, the Roman cistern and the archaeological emergencies;
• archaeological investigation of defined portions of the area south of the Roman villa, the stratigraphic excavation of the area between the coastal tower and the Roman villa;
• preparation of new and differentiated pedestrian routes and systems for visiting the archaeological areas;
• reclamation and safety interventions of the military artefacts from the Second World War, as well as their recovery;
• removal and replacement of the fence protecting the Park with a more appropriate and decorous structure;
• creation of the new entrance area to the Park by designing the parking area, access routes and a new reception building (ticket office, book shop, services for the disabled) as well as a small warehouse serving the park management activity;
• renovation of the premises used as toilets already present inside the park, currently abandoned;
• interventions on the cliffs to control the erosion phenomena of the cliff, with particular attention to the archaeological areas.