Sito palafitticolo del Laghetto della Costa

Below the medieval borgo of Arquà Petrarca, the Laghetto della Costa preserves traces of a prehistoric settlement built on piles in the lake’s silt. The Bronze Age site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage property “Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps,” inscribed in 2011.

Why it matters

Excavations around the lake from the late nineteenth century onward revealed a settlement whose best-documented phases date from the 23rd to the 15th centuries BC. The site is one of 111 component sites in six countries included in the transnational UNESCO property; nineteen of those sites are in Italy. A regional commission decree of 8 September 2016 declared the area of particular cultural interest.

What to notice

The lake is the largest natural lake in the Euganean Hills and is fed by thermal springs. It was once known as the “Lake of the Seven Springs.” Excavations at its southern margin found both pile-built houses and buildings on dry ground, with wooden floors and stone hearths. Finds—including pottery, ornaments, metal tools, and implements of bone, antler, polished stone and flint—are held at the Archaeological Museum of Padova and the National Atestino Museum in Este. Animal bones indicate the herding of sheep, goats, cattle and pigs.

Context and history

Excavation campaigns took place in 1885–86, 1901, 1906 and 1909 on the southern and western shores. Waterlogged silt preserved wood, seeds and bone, providing evidence of Bronze Age life around the lake. The UNESCO serial property brings together pile-dwelling sites in Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Slovenia and Italy.