Porto Caleri Coastal Botanical Garden Historical Timeline

Origins

The dune systems here were formed by sediment carried down by the Po and Adige and redistributed along the coast, building the sandbars and dune ridges that enclose the lagoons behind.

Turning points

Through the twentieth century almost the entire north Adriatic coast was built over for beach tourism, and the dune and pine-wood belt that once ran its length was largely destroyed.

Influential people

The pine woods behind the dunes here were substantially planted, as they were along much of this coast, to stabilise the sand and shelter the reclaimed land inland.

Cultural evolution

The garden was established to protect and interpret the surviving sequence rather than to display collected plants, which is why it reads as a nature reserve with labels rather than as a botanical collection.

Present-day significance

It now sits within the Po Delta regional park, and is used as much for education as for visiting.