Interactions between ancient Herculaneum and modern Ercolano

Archaeological sites throughout the Mediterranean are important cultural tourism attractions and catalysts for development. Inevitably, however, development either leads to the growth of the modern town around sites or to the modern being sacrificed in order to excavate and utilize the heritage. The issue that needs to be faced today is the relationship between these two worlds that differ in structure and purpose but which are linked by their co-existence and which interact in the context of development. Approaches which focus either only on site management or instead on modern development risk marginalizing either the site or the town. Herculaneum in the Bay of Naples, Italy, is a valuable case study for understanding the problems that can result from parallel, yet independent, development of the ancient and modern towns. The Herculaneum Conservation Project and the Herculaneum Centre, together with the Civil Engineering Department of the Second University of Naples, have undertaken urban research in order to understand how to improve interaction between the archaeological site and the modern town. Particular emphasis has been placed on Via Mare, an 18th C residential district of some 25.000 square metres, which connects the historic centre of modern’ ‘Ercolano’ to the sea and directly abuts the archaeological site on its north and eastern edges. An array of social, economic and environmental problems have threatened the survival of this urban area and its close-knit community in recent decades. However, these threats can perhaps be translated into opportunities if urban regeneration is approached in an integrated way.