Stazione Foce - Valli di Comacchio

Stazione Foce is the historic fishing station of the Comacchio lagoons, where the Po di Volano approaches the sea. The surrounding wetlands include ancient casoni and lavorieri, traditional structures associated with lagoon fishing.

Why it matters

Stazione Foce is where the Comacchio wetlands open onto the Adriatic. The lagoon complex behind it is the largest brackish wetland in Emilia-Romagna and one of the most important in southern Europe, a Ramsar site within Natura 2000 area IT4060002, and the fishing station has always been its working harbour: fish caught in the valli were gathered here before travelling up the waterways to the town's marinato factories. The area is associated with the casoni da pesca, reed-and-tile fishing houses, and with wetlands that include Valle Uccelliera, the salt pans and Valle Zavelea.

What to notice

The valli consist of shallow waters, dossi or low islets, and reedbeds. Valle Uccelliera is a brackish basin, while the Salina di Comacchio includes basins used by waders, gulls and terns; the park identifies it as a major site for flamingos and spoonbills. Valle Zavelea and the Fossa Foce area include reedbeds used by marsh harriers and several species of terns. The lagoons also retain eel traps and support fishing activity.

Context and history

The valli themselves are the slow work of rivers and sea: the park authority explains that the basin formed through the lowering of the Etruscan-Roman delta and a medieval marine ingress, and human ingenuity then organised the water for fishing, with embankments, sluices, casoni and lavorieri, the elaborate trap systems built to intercept migrating eels. Stazione Foce grew as the station that commanded the outlet of this system at the mouth of the Po di Volano. The last remnant valleys, including Valle Zavelea and Valle Uccelliera, survive as fragments of what was once a much larger wetland, and the casoni preserve material traces of a fishing civilisation whose memory is kept in Comacchio's museums. The salt pans, disused since the 1980s, add a second layer of human history to the same waters.