Vada was Volterra’s port during Etruscan and Roman times. It is thought the ancient port was situated in
the area where the Solvay company’s jetty now stands, as that area of sea was particularly suitable as
an anchorage and for loading and unloading cargoes, being protected by extensive system of sand bars.
At the beginning of the 5th century, a poet sailing from Rome to Gaul (France) gave a vivid description of the
port, which was entered through a narrow channel between the sandbars, still identifiable today, marked by
branch-topped poles. Nearby, at San Gaetano on the north side of Vada, a section of the harbour area
built in the second half of the 1st century AD has been unearthed.
The buildings had been built over
the remains of a 9th-century BC Etruscan village of huts, destroyed and abandoned following a rise in sea level.
Excavation of the area is still underway; at the moment, the area appears to consist of two thermal baths, a
monumental fountain, warehouses – called horrea – a market and the premises of a port company. The
buildings were richly decorated with statues, mosaics in stone and glass, and frescoes, only part of which have
survived and are preserved in the Rosignano Marittimo Museum.
The area, which was rebuilt in the IV century,
seems to have been an active part of the numerous objects recovered – amphorae for wine, oil, fish-sauce
and fruit, pottery, lamps and coins – provide important information about imports and exports in the harbour
and hinterland.
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