2023-06-28 17:10:42
The restoration of the ancient tannery of Pompeii has been completed, the largest artisan plant for the processing of leather found in the ancient city. The complex of the ancient tannery is reopened to the public, at the end of an extensive restoration operation resulting from the collaboration between the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and the Unic-Italian Tanneries Lineapelle group, which supported the costs of the intervention. Tomorrow Thursday 29 June at 4 pm there will be the official presentation of the restoration, in the presence of Park officials and Unic Lineapelle top management. The opening of the tannery is part of the Park’s new proposal for an itinerary of artisan workshops which, from 30 June to 1 August, will allow visitors to visit some facilities dedicated to various kinds of activities such as the Fullonica (the old laundry), the Bakery of Popidio Prisco and the Bottega del garum, where the precious sauce based on fish sauce was produced.
The visit to the tannery will be supported by an educational-exhibition set-up that illustrates how the leather working process took place in ancient times and by the display of original tanning tools, according to the model of the ‘widespread museum’, already successfully tested in Pompeii, as well as a 3D tactile model for the visually impaired with a legend in Braille. Among the copy reproductions, however, the famous mosaic of ‘Memento Mori’ (original by Mann) in the canteen of the Triclinium all’Aperto, created by the Mosaic Restoration Laboratory of the RavennAntica Foundation. The restoration and enhancement intervention was carried out under the operational and scientific direction of the Park which oversaw the planning through its officials. To allow for a substantial improvement in the use of the areas, also subject to tragic events following the war damage during the Second World War, crossing walkways have been built for visits and important interventions for the care and maintenance of the greenery and for the reconstruction of the pergola.
“Another important site of the excavations is being returned to use, which we are sure will be appreciated by the many visitors who have chosen Pompeii as their travel destination in recent months. – declares the director of the Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel – The proposal to include it in an itinerary of artisan plants is aimed at also telling the aspects of a productive and commercial city, and not only the Pompeii of the Domus with magnificent frescoes. The sponsorship of the Unic-Italian Tanneries Lineapelle group represents a virtuous example of public-private collaboration, it fits fully into the path undertaken by the Archaeological Park in this direction – and in a planned manner – through the activity of the Fundraising Office. Thanks to these collaborations, new important synergies are triggered, which are able to give life to new cultural processes”.
Unearthed at the end of the 19th century and located in Regio I of the excavations (Insula 5), the tanning plant was identified as such on the basis of the epigraphic evidence, the tools found during the excavations, as well as the production arrangements, very similar to those used in medieval and modern tanneries. The plant was installed around the middle of the first century. AD in place of an older house, occupying almost all of the insula. Following the damage caused by the earthquake of 62 d. C. the artisan plant underwent important changes that made it more functional, giving it its current appearance. The various operations that make up the leather working process were carried out in functionally distinct sectors of the building: the washing of the leather, which required the use of malodorous substances, was carried out inside the dolia (containers) fed with water under the portico or, perhaps, far from the complex on the banks of the Sarno.
The actual tanning with the maceration of the skins took place, however, inside the fifteen large cylindrical tanks preserved in one of the rooms of the building. Finally, the hides were beaten under the porticoed area and worked in the small rooms that follow one another on the east side of the peristyle, divided from each other by low transversal walls. Against the west wall of the peristyle there is also a large summer triclinium intended for the guests of the coriarius (owner of the business), who had his residence within the complex. In the context of ancient handicraft productions, the tannery of Pompeii constitutes an exceptional document.
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