Masterplan di Comacchio

In 2022, the Municipality of Comacchio secured €4.98 million from the PNRR for an ambitious urban regeneration project. The initiative seeks to transform the city by restoring and repurposing public spaces and historic buildings, enhancing social, cultural, and educational services, and promoting sustainable mobility. Through a coordinated set of actions, the project aims to revitalise urban life, strengthen community cohesion, and bring renewed quality to shared spaces.

Often called the “little Venice,” Comacchio developed historically on thirteen lagoon mounds, creating a unique balance between natural landscape and human settlement. Its historic centre, built on a network of canals and islands, has preserved its distinctive urban form despite twentieth-century changes, including hydraulic reclamation and urban expansion. Today, the city reflects this dual identity: its intimate connection with the lagoon and canals on one side, and the coast and seaside tourism on the other. This duality has also posed challenges, marginalising the historic centre and diluting Comacchio’s lagoon identity. The regeneration project focuses on emblematic sites such as the Portico dei Cappuccini and the Santa Maria in Aula Regia complex, restoring their historic character and reconnecting the city with its water-bound heritage.

The Portico dei Cappuccini, an extraordinary 17th-century loggia stretching over 400 metres, will be enhanced to restore visual continuity and architectural prominence, with a new lighting system designed to accentuate the arches while integrating with Comacchio’s Light Plan.

At the Ider-Carli sports field, the project includes the reconstruction of stands and changing rooms, the reorganisation of access points and fences to emphasise views of the Portico dei Cappuccini, new paving, and upgraded lighting meeting CONI standards.

The former nursery garden is being revitalised with a mainly landscape-focused approach: a sinuous pedestrian pathway, new recreational and sports furnishings, and the preservation of visual corridors towards the Portico dei Cappuccini, which also serves as the starting point for guided tours and the city’s greenway.

A new Greenway links the Portico dei Cappuccini to the Cittadella dello Sport via a 2 km cycle and pedestrian path. The project revitalises the embankment using sustainable, low-impact solutions, offering panoramic views over Comacchio’s valleys and reconnecting previously isolated urban areas.

The regeneration of Via Margherita and the Cittadella dello Sport improves traffic flow, expands parking—especially for disabled users—and safely integrates the greenway with cycle and pedestrian routes, e-bike and bike parking, tree planting, and new green areas. The focus is on encouraging soft mobility, creating pleasant recreational spaces, and harmoniously linking sports facilities with the surrounding urban fabric.

The new Raibosola Stadium changing rooms cover 622 m² without interfering with existing sports activities. Featuring open and covered spaces, separate access routes, modular closures, and resting areas, the building links the greenway with nearby facilities such as the skatepark and padel and football courts, ensuring flexibility for multiple simultaneous uses.

Finally, the athletics track at Raibosola Stadium will be upgraded with the reconstruction of 20% of the synthetic surface, worn and damaged over time, to ensure safety and optimal performance for athletes.