Valle Santa e Casse di Campotto

The Valli di Argenta form a 1,600-hectare freshwater wetland within the Po Delta Park, recognised under the Ramsar Convention in 1976. The landscape brings together Valle Santa, the Campotto-Bassarone expansion basins and the flooded woodland of Bosco del Traversante.

Why it matters

Most of the Po Delta is brackish; the Valli di Argenta are a major freshwater landscape. Their waters are closely tied to the drainage works that reshaped the surrounding plain. The park’s sixth station, the wetlands combine engineered basins with marsh, wet meadow and woodland habitats.

What to notice

Valle Santa preserves an open stretch of wetland, with a watchtower overlooking the water and meadows. In the Campotto and Bassarone basins, water lilies, reeds, cattails and sedges grow among the marshes, which support herons, egrets, stilts and other waterbirds. Bosco del Traversante adds a seasonally flooded woodland of poplar, ash, elm and willow. The Cavone, a former clay quarry, has returned to a landscape of reeds and water.

Context and history

The Valli di Argenta are both remnants and products of water management. Valle Santa preserves part of the older marsh landscape of the Po’s southern branches; the Campotto and Bassarone basins were engineered as flood-storage areas within the Bonifica Renana drainage system. Today the area’s museums interpret that history: the Museo della Bonifica at the Saiarino pumping station, the Museo delle Valli and Argenta’s Museo Civico form an ecomuseum devoted to the territory’s environmental and social history. The wetlands are protected through the Po Delta Park and the Natura 2000 network.