Reopening Herculaneum: Celebrating 10 years of the Herculaneum Conservation Project

Today we celebrate 10 years of the Herculaneum Conservation Project! This public-private initiative has had an incredible impact on the conservation of Herculaneum, and I'm sure that everyone will agree with me that all involved should be congratulated for their hard work and commitment to the site.

To celebrate this important date, today the Decumanus Maximus will be re-opened to the public for the first time in 20 years - in fact, this is happening as I type! We have a Blogging Pompeii contributor at this event, so watch out for a future report on the celebrations.

Here is a statement from the BSR website:

RE‐OPENING HERCULANEUM

Celebrating 10 years of the Packard project, a public‐private partnership for Herculaneum’s archaeological heritage

On 19 April 2011 we will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Herculaneum Conservation Project, a partnership between the Packard Humanities Institute, the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei and the British School at Rome for the conservation and enhancement of the archaeological site of Herculaneum. This project is an unprecedented public‐private collaboration which, thanks to its long‐term commitment, has managed to halt and drastically reduce the serious decay in which the site found itself at the end of the twentieth century. The re‐opening of the Decumanus Maximus – the main street of the ancient town – marks the final step towards returning the Roman roads to visitors, free of barriers and ‘no entry’ signs and closes a chapter of important works that have taken place in recent years.

See here for the English-language press release. An Italian-language version will be uploaded to the SANP website later today.