In ancient Roman times, they supplied water to Surrentum. For years, they were forgotten, but now the municipality of Sorrento has announced a competition to draft a project for the revitalization of the area of the historic center known to residents as "Spasiano," which covers an area of approximately 2 square meters.
The aim is to enhance the Roman cisterns, in order to guarantee their use and tourist development, but also to redevelop the area above, now in a state of abandonment, for the creation of an urban park. The area is currently almost completely covered by vegetation that has grown spontaneously.
The idea, therefore, is to regenerate a site that is now degraded and abandoned, to transform it into a cultural, recreational and social hub. abandoned-playgrounds-overlooking-cisternoni Space that, in the administration's intentions, will have to perform the main function of an urban park, characterized by the prominent presence of vegetation, compatible with the urban environment, which welcomes within it the possibility of carrying out both recreational or cultural activities (projections, performances, etc.) or physical activities of various types, both individual and group, to welcome meditation activities and competitive activities for less widespread sports (such as basketball) to lend itself to hosting educational activities with areas to be used as outdoor classrooms.
The cisterns, on the other hand, were used in ancient times to provide enough water for the needs of the population. Built with a reticulated work facing and a hydraulic mortar coating, located in the eastern suburban area a short distance from the city's main gate, they overlook the current Corso Italia and are divided into high and low cisterns. The high cisterns consist of 9 chambers with barrel vaults which can be accessed from the Spasiano palace near the Armida cinema.
They measure just under 32 meters in length, more than 5 in width and 4,70 in height, and were filled up to 4 meters. Water from the Piano and Sant'Agnello springs flowed into these cisterns, which then ended up in the Formiello aqueduct. The lower cisterns, on the other hand, are 11 and smaller in size since they have a capacity of 60 thousand hectoliters.
These were supported by 4 additional smaller ones. The system of cisterns most likely dates back to the Augustan age. It was used again after the Second World War for drinking water and irrigation. Until 2016 it was available to Gori, and then returned to the Municipality, which in 2019 has already started an initial recovery intervention in collaboration with the Sorrento Foundation.
Now the administration of Mayor Massimo Coppola aims to redevelop the site of immense archaeological value and great aggregation potential. Interventions for which a cost of 700 thousand euros is expected. A competition has therefore been announced reserved for engineers and architects, also in association, for the drafting of the project. The winner will receive just under 34 thousand euros, while the second and third place will receive just over 7 thousand euros each.
