Laguna del Mort Historical Timeline

Origins

The lagoon is a product of the Piave moving. Rivers on this low coast shift their mouths over time, and when this one did, the old channel was cut off from the flow and became a still, brackish lagoon behind the beach.

Turning points

The wider coast was reclaimed and built over through the twentieth century, and the dune and pine belt that once ran along the whole shore was almost entirely destroyed.

Influential people

Eraclea Mare, the resort immediately west, was developed deliberately at lower density than its neighbours and kept its pine wood, which is why the lagoon survived beside it rather than under a hotel.

Cultural evolution

The area is now protected, and is used for walking, birdwatching and swimming from an undeveloped beach.

Present-day significance

It functions as the reference point for what this whole coastline looked like before the 1950s -- and as the local counter-argument to the way the rest of it was developed.