The Park is located in a former clay quarry, abandoned at the end of the 1970s. In this open-air deposit, covering about 12 hectares, various geological layers of marine origin are exhibited, some of which are extraordinarily rich in fossils. Famous in the Italian and international scientific community for the abundance and preservation of the specimens, the quarry went through a period of neglect and was at risk of being lost during the 1980s, when it became an illegal dumping ground for waste. In the 1990s, the new owner company, Colacem of Gubbio, took care of its recovery by rehabilitating its borders and the base, planting as many as 8,000 trees along the gently sloping edges. In February 1999, work began in the former quarry, creating the Fossil Park, and in the 17th-century farmhouse (intended to be the Malacological Clay Museum) which is on the property less than ten meters from the quarry edge. On the following August 9, the Malacological Clay Museum and the Fossil Park of Cava Lustrelle officially opened, one of the very few examples in Italy and Europe of environmental recovery of an abandoned quarry for scientific and educational purposes.
Information about Malacological Clay Museum and Fossil Park
Contrada Lustrelle SS.Cutrofiano-Aradeo,
73020 Cutrofiano (Lecce)
3282855414
info@parcodeifossili.it
Source: MIBACT
