Riserva Naturale Regionale Orientata Palude del Conte e Duna Costiera

Behind the famous sand of Punta Prosciutto, the Ionian coast turns wild. This 898-hectare regional reserve — a wetland and its protective dune belt, created by Apulian law in 2006 and run by the municipality itself — is the quieter half of Porto Cesareo's protected landscape, a Natura 2000 site where wetlands meet the coast.

Why it matters

Established by regional law no. 5 of 15 March 2006, the oriented reserve protects 898 hectares that fall entirely within the municipality of Porto Cesareo — an unusual arrangement in which a town administers its own nature reserve through a dedicated park office. Two European-level sites overlap it: the Site of Community Interest IT9150027 "Palude del Conte – Dune di Punta Prosciutto" and, to the south, IT9150028 "Porto Cesareo". The name describes the geography with peasant precision: a long shallow marsh (the palude) lying between the shoreline and the coastal road, and the dune ridge that keeps the sea out of it. Because the reserve is in direct continuity with the marine protected area, wetland, dune and sea form one unbroken conservation corridor.

What to notice

The seaward edge is a beach backed by dune habitat; inland, the reserve's wetland holds water after rainy months. Near its southern end, the Torre Castiglione ruin rises from coastal scrub, while karst sinkholes known as spunnulate punctuate the fields behind the dune.

Context and history

Protection arrived late but arrived completely. Apulia's 2006 regional law folded this coast into the region's oriented-reserve system, and Porto Cesareo set up its own park office (Ufficio del Parco) to manage it, with headquarters in town. The reserve's European credentials were already in place through the SIC designations, and its fortunes are tied to the neighbouring protected areas: the regional framework links it with the eastern Taranto coastline reserves, while on the ground it passes seamlessly into the state marine protected area's dunes and shallows.