Ecomuseo del Litorale Romano (Polo ostiense)

The museum area includes two complementary itineraries combining museological and environmental points of view. The first, external, itinerary visits the most interesting sites of the Ostia reclamation area: low and high water channels, large low water collection tanks and antique and modern drainage pump systems. In the main building of the plant (1884) it is possible to see the machine room practically in its original conditions, preserving the first hydraulic lifting pumps in working order. Full-scale models of countryside huts and some agricultural tools are exhibited in the garden area. The second, internal, itinerary is divided into various sections that represent different themes and moments linked to the reclamations and the physical and anthropogenic transformations of the territory: the coast countryside before the 19th century; the hygienic-health situation of the countryside and legislation concerning reclamation of the capital; discoveries regarding the transmission of malaria and the fight against malaria; the emergence of cooperation in the Ravenna peonage; the reclamation project for the Roman coast; the creation and development of contemporary settlements. Photographic documents of the period; memoires and findings; objects of domestic use and original work tools; testimonials, songs, sounds and testimonies in video and audio registrations of the protagonists and owners of the memories of a lifetime during the last century; and reconstructions and plastic models in scale of the reclamation area are presented in various rooms. A special model with water lifting pumps simulates the operation of the reclamation system.