Porto di Bellaria

For the city of Bellaria , too, the port has always represented the ideal place of life and quiet. Historically on the left side of the mouth of the Uso As early as the late nineteenth century, there propagated a cluster of houses, probably huts inhabited by fishermen who housed their boats in the river, accommodated temporarily as harbor shelters. These small boats were sailing and rowing boats and were used for land-based fishing, that is, fishing close to the coast. The seabed was too shallow, and very dangerous in rough seas, and did not always allow them to take to sea or to return, generating a perennial cause for claim by the Bellaria seamen.

During the fall season, fishermen would move in wooden and straw huts to the Po Delta to fish for eels and spend several months there. A very common custom among the younger and older fishermen, especially in the good season, was the “tratta,” or a net stretched out from the boat and then pulled by hand from the shore. The fish thus harvested was taken by the fishwives on bicycles to the inland hamlets and scattered houses and often became a bargaining chip for agricultural products. This thriving fishing activity in Bellaria continues to this day, despite the fact that the present port, equipped with more facilities, does not allow large boats to dock as in the nearby ports of Rimini or Cesenatico.

The port of Bellaria, being located at the mouth of the Uso River, has an entrance protected by two piers and is about 30 m wide. It is virtually impossible to enter with rough seas; the port is subject to silting of the seabed so it is periodically excavated during the winter period. It is important to pay attention to the continuous high and low tides and reefs parallel to the coast throughout the built-up area of Igea Marina. Its small size constrains, inevitably, the number of berths present which never exceed 35/40 units of which 5/6 are intended for transit and, in any case, for boats no longer than 12 m.

The banks of this canal port have docks with depths of up to 3.50 m, and at times of maximum use it can hold as many as 500 people who directly or indirectly reside there temporarily. People will certainly benefit from the general services that the whole tourist city will be able to offer, at the same time the port should be able to accommodate users with a number of dedicated services present in the port area and forming part of it. The project envisages the realization of such services with specific and dedicated functions: from storage to maintenance up to services to people with businesses addressed to boating. The buildings housing such services are distributed in the available areas in sequence with a trend perpendicular to the water mirror, and respecting the built contour. The planimetric reference is suggested by the conformation of the Colonia Roma building and park and the course of the existing river channel.