Il Parco is hosted 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 exposed, some of which are extraordinarily rich in fossils. Very famous in the Italian and foreign scientific community for the abundance and state of conservation of the finds, the quarry experienced a period of abandonment and risked being lost during the 1980s, when it became an illegal waste dump. In the 1990s, the new owning company, Colacem of Gubbio, took care of its recovery by reclaiming its borders and bottom, planting as many as 8000 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 (destined to the Malacological Museum of Clays) which falls within the property less than ten meters from the quarry edge. On the following August 9, the Malacological Museum of Clays and the Fossil Park of Cava Lustrelle were officially born, one of the very few examples in Italy and Europe of environmental recovery for scientific-educational purposes of a disused quarry.
Information about the Malacological Museum of Clays and the Fossil Park
Contrada Lustrelle SS.Cutrofiano-Aradeo,
73020 Cutrofiano (Lecce)
3282855414
info@parcodeifossili.it
Source: MIBACT
