In front of the archaeological area of Pyrgi, in Santa Severa, for three weeks you cannot enter the water, you do not drop anchor and you do not fish. From the 1st to 21st September 2026 a specific stretch of sea has been banned by the Port Authority of Civitavecchia. The reason, however, does not come from abnormal water analyzes or some environmental emergency: archaeologists are working beneath that surface.
THE’ordinance no. 102 of 1 September 2026 of the Coast Guard concerns the underwater reconnaissance activities planned as part of the archaeological campaign conducted by the Sapienza University of Rome. To work on the seabed it is necessary, very simply, that no boats pass over it and that no swimmers swim around the divers.
What is prohibited in front of Pyrgi until September 21st
The ban concerns him body of water overlooking the archaeological area of Pyrgitherefore a delimited sector of the coast and not the beaches of Santa Marinella as a whole. In the area identified by the ordinance, bathing and staying in the water, navigation, anchoring and mooring, professional and sport fishing, diving and other unauthorized activities at sea are prohibited.
The distinction matters, especially in September, when reading “bathing ban” immediately brings to mind fecal bacteria and ARPA sampling. This time the water has nothing to do with it: the ban serves the archaeological research campaign and the safety of those who work underwater.
Sapienza itself has scheduled a new phase of the project for September 2026 Research and excavations in the Pyrgi area: the Sanctuary and the public-ceremonial quarterincluded in the “Great Excavations” of the University. The Pyrgi construction site is also a place of field training for students of Archeology and Archaeological Sciences.
Because archaeologists continue to search even under the sea
Pyrgi today appears as a strip of coast next to the Castle of Santa Severa. More than two thousand years ago it was one of the outlets on the Mediterranean Caere, the current Cerveteriamong the most important cities of Etruria.
As Sapienza itself recalls, the port and the great maritime sanctuary were directly linked to the trade that had contributed to the wealth of the Etruscan city. Pyrgi occupied a particularly favorable position along the Tyrrhenian routes and the famous ones also arrive from the sanctuary area Pyrgi gold foilamong the most important finds of Etruscan archaeology.
University excavations here have been going on since 1957when they were started by Massimo Pallottino. The research, however, does not stop at the shoreline. The sea has modified the coastline over the centuries and the seabed in front of Santa Severa has long been part of the archaeological investigation of the port system.
The Ministry of Culture also describes the Museum of the Sea and Ancient Navigation of Santa Severa as a structure created precisely to preserve and narrate the testimonies recovered along this stretch of coast, with particular attention to the port of Pyrgi and underwater archaeology.
Three weeks without anchors on a piece of history
The ban will end on September 21stas established by the ordinance. Until then that stretch of sea must remain free from normal bathing, fishing and recreational activities while the reconnaissance continues.
We still don’t know what the 2026 campaign will return and it would be premature to turn a reconnaissance into a discovery before the archaeologists have even finished looking. Pyrgi, however, has a rather effective feature in reminding us how thin the boundary between a beach and an archaeological site can be: here you just need to move a few meters from the shoreline and the excavation continues underwater. For three weeks the anchors will also have to wait.
