Natural Reserve Piscina delle Bagnature - Circeo National Park

The Circeo National Park is a national park established in 1934 in one of the oldest protected natural areas in Italy, located along the Tyrrhenian coast of historic Lazio, along the stretch of Tyrrhenian coast between Anzio and Terracina, covering an area of 8,917 it has and taking its name from the homonymous promontory.

The total area of the park is made up of the value entered on the Official List for the park itself, added to that of the various natural reserves that are part of it, which appear separately in the list.

It was established in 1934 by the Forestry Administration of the time, at the behest of Benito Mussolini, at the suggestion of Sen. Raffaele Bastianelli, in order to protect the last remains of the Pontine Marshes which in those years were being reclaimed.

Natale Prampolini, the senator and engineer who planned the reclamation of the Pontine Agro, was in fact awarded by Vittorio Emanuele III with the conferral of the title of Count of Circeo in 1941.

It is the only Italian national park that extends completely into a lowland marine environment.

The Circeo National Park has also been a UNESCO "biosphere reserve" since 1997, and has been nominated for the title of "World Heritage Site".

The Piscina delle Bagnature nature reserve is a protected natural area established in 1975. It occupies an area of ??57 ha in the province of Latina within the Circeo National Park.

It is a depression of the ancient dune dating back to the Quaternary (between 2.58 million and 11,700 years ago); the pool is formed due to the semi-permeable bottom of the surface aquifer which facilitates the accumulation of rainwater. It is not easily accessible to normal visitors given the imperviousness of the place.

The reclamation of the Pontine marshes that took place in the Fascist era (30s of the last century) and the variation in climatic conditions contributed to the reduction of the permanent water volume, so much so that often, during the summer period, the pool remains dry, with consequent inconvenience for the fauna and flora present.

Map: Natural Reserve Piscina delle Bagnature - Circeo National Park