After the factories. New research, development and enhancement perspectives for the submerged port district of the Ripa Puteolana (Pozzuoli, Naples)

On a coastline of almost 2 km, between the center of the port of Puteoli and the Portus Julius, the submerged districts of the ripa Puteolana constitute an underwater archaeological area of extraordinary importance, gravitating around the vicus Lartidianus and the vicus Annianus. the headquarters of merchants and pilgrims from every corner of the Mediterranean, the endless rows of horrea at the service of the fleets of Rome. For a long time this exceptional context was only scarcely explored, due to the heavy and impactful presence of the industries that for most of the twentieth century characterized the west coast of modern Pozzuoli. With the post-industrial phase following the closure of almost all production plants, the great challenges of the regeneration and reconversion of this complex waterfront, with the abandoned factories just above the ancient walls, have begun. With the project Between land and sea. Studies and research in the coastal areas of the Campi Flegrei, born in 2021 from an agreement between the SABAP for the metropolitan area of Naples and the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, with the collaboration, for the submerged areas, of the Scuola Superiore Meridionale, a systematic documentation program of the ripa Puteolana has finally been launched: only a modern scientific knowledge could offer to the politicians and to the decision-makers the tools for a regeneration of the coast that concretely takes into account the very high density and uniqueness of submerged archaeological remains of the ancient port; only the scientific knowledge, at the same time, will made the involvement of local communities in the protection of the common heritage a real possibility.