Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata

After the collapse of the Schola Armaturarum on 6 November 2010 and further collapses of walls at Pompei at the end of November 2010, the State Party invited a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS advisory mission, which was carried out from 2 – 4 December 2010 and from 10–13 January 2011. The mission report is available online at https://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/35COM.  

The mission assessed the impact of the collapses on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property as well as the overall state of conservation, reviewed the management arrangements and provided recommendations for its conservation and management.

The mission considered that the collapses that occurred in November were regrettable. However, they did not consider that these collapses threatened the OUV of the property. Nevertheless they considered that the conditions that caused these collapses are wide-spread within the site and the consequences of cumulative on-going deterioration could potentially threaten the OUV. A considerable number of houses and other structures at Pompei and Herculaneum are at risk and therefore require major conservation work. The identified factors include:

a) Management

There is a general backlog in the property’s maintenance and monitoring due to institutional instability and the resulting lack of adequate management and coordination. In addition, on several occasions the scarce resources have been diverted from conservation and maintenance to non-urgent projects. Although Pompei has a management plan, it is not used as an effective means to protect the property or to guide decision-making. Furthermore, basic documentation for the management and monitoring of the property and its surroundings is missing or outdated for Pompei, leading to uncontrolled development in the vicinity of this portion of the property.

b) Restoration, maintenance and lack of skills base

Inappropriate restoration methods and a general lack of qualified staff for the restoration and maintenance of the property have impacted the property. Restoration projects are outsourced and the quality of the work of the contractors is not being assessed. An efficient drainage system is lacking leading to water infiltration and excessive moisture which gradually degrades both the structural condition of the buildings as well as their décor. The mission was also concerned by the amount of plant growth, particularly ivy, in some places at Pompei.

c) Visitor pressure

In 2010, Pompei received 2.3 million visitors with a peak of 300 000 visitors per month in spring and early summer. This situation contrasts with the fact that large areas of Pompei are not accessible for visitors due to the lack of custodians, so accessible parts are over-visited and suffer considerably from visitor erosion.

Altogether, the mission considers that it is essential that the Ministry of Culture maintains institutional stability within the Superintendency in order to allow it to focus on managing and conserving the property as its main priority. Required technical and financial resources need to be identified to carry out an effective programme and steps should be taken to secure them for sustained implementation. The management plan needs to be reviewed to include a comprehensive public use plan and a risk management plan. Priority in work programmes should be given to dealing with the backlog in conservation and maintenance. An effective drainage system needs to be installed urgently to prevent further deterioration of unstable areas.

The mission also recommended that the Superintendency develop and implement a set of simple monitoring measures for the condition recording and use of the site, which would entail the updating of the Geographic Information System (GIS) for Pompei and the development of common standards for GIS for all the components of the property. Concerning Herculaneum, the Superintendency should plan with the Herculaneum Conservation Project for the integration in due course of the Herculaneum GIS.

d) Other conservation issues

On 12 April 2011, the World Heritage Centre was informed about the current construction of a large concrete building immediately North of the Pompei portion of the property, in the vicinity of the Porta di Nola. According to a press article of 1 April 2011, the building will serve as a deposit for the archaeological findings and will additionally house office space. The State Party has not informed the mission members about this project, nor submitted any information to the World Heritage Centre so far.

The World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies note that a considerable number of structures at Pompei and Herculaneum are in a poor state of conservation and maintenance. They consider that substantial efforts are necessary to urgently address the property’s management, conservation and continuous monitoring, in order to forestall a repeat of the collapse that occurred in November 2010. They also note that the current construction of a large concrete building immediately north of the Pompei portion of the property could impact on the visual setting of the property and that actions are needed to protect it.

They consider that a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS reactive monitoring mission should be invited in 2012 in order to review the implementation of the proposed recommendations.