Italy
Evaporitic Karst and Caves
The Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines comprise well-studied examples of karst phenomena in gypsum and anhydrite in a humid subtropical climate.
They consist of two deposits from different periods: Triassic anhydrite and Messinian gypsum. The caves include the world's largest epigenetic cave and the largest karst salt spring in Europe. Over 900 caves have been explored and mapped so far; moreover, the discipline of speleology was born in this area.
Community Perspective: the nine components can be safely watched from a distance or by joining one of the cave tours. Tsunami described his harrowing experience at the Spipola Cave in Gessi Bolognesi, while Els cruised the same area on a bike. Clyde and Astraftis visited the Alta Valle Secchia component.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines (ID: 1692)
- Country
- Italy
- Status
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Inscribed 2023
Site history
History of Evaporitic Karst and Caves
- WHS Type
- Natural
- Criteria
- viii
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- enteparchi.bo.it — Scheduled cave tours to Grotta della Spipola
- parks.it — Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi
Community Information
- Community Category
- Natural landscape: Karst landscapes and caves
Travel Information
Reservation required
Recent Connections
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Bronze Age
"Between the Copper Age and the Early B… -
Gray Wolf
"In general, in the forests there are a… -
Aurochs
"An interesting Late Pleistocene fauna,…
Connections of Evaporitic Karst and Caves
- History
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Bronze Age
"Between the Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age, the human frequentation became more systematic, and changed its aims: the natural cavities, in particular fossil karst springs, were mainly used as burial sites of the communities living in the neighbourhood. These are the cases of Farneto Cave (Gessi Bolognesi) and Tanaccia and Re Tiberio caves (Vena del Gesso Romagnola)" (nom file)
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- Ecology
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Dripstone
"speleothems" (AB ev) -
Significant Karst Features
"the most complete, outstanding and accessible examples of the karst phenomena in gypsum and anhydrite at humid sub-tropical climate conditions" (AB ev) -
Gypsum
"an unusually well-preserved and extensive epigenic gypsum karst terrain ... some of the deepest gypsum caves in the world .. very large gypsum cone features" (AB ev) -
Gray Wolf
"In general, in the forests there are all the large and medium mammals of the Apennines: Canis lupus (about 5-6 family herds)," (nom file) -
Aurochs
"An interesting Late Pleistocene fauna, dated between 44,000 and 20,000 B.P., has been found at several sites in the gypsum formation of the Bologna area. The fauna is ... accompanied by the auroch (Bos primigenius)" (nom file p34) -
Fossils
"The older evaporite rocks (Upper Triassic) of the nominated property are virtually devoid of fossil remains, but the younger gypsum rocks (Latest Miocene) retain a very important paleontological significance" (fish, plants, auroch,giant deer, wolverine, cave hyaena etc) (nom file)
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- World Heritage Process
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Natural sites filling gaps cited by IUCN
"Evaporitic karst, both salt and gypsum, is identified as a gap on the World Heritage List in the 2008 IUCN World Heritage Caves and Karst Thematic Report and in the 2021 IUCN Geological World Heritage global framework." (AB ev) -
Inscribed on a single criterion only
Crit VIII
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- WHS on Other Lists
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Natura 2000
"Ninety-six percent of the nominated property is protected by the European Union’s Natura 2000 network" (AB ev)
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- Timeline
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Triassic
"The nominated property encompasses two different geological periods during which evaporitic rocks were deposited: Firstly, the Triassic period (200 million years ago) associated with the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea" (AB ev)
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- WHS Hotspots
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Emilia-Romagna and Marche Hotspot
The locations Gessi Bolognesi and Gessi di Zola Predosa lie just outside of the city of Bologna.
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- Science and Technology
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Scientific Developments
Crit VIII: "An uncommon richness of rare speleothems and minerals, sometimes unique to these caves, have attracted naturalists and scientists since the 16th century and tens of evaporitic karst phenomena have been described here for the first time"
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- Visiting conditions
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Reservation required
To visit the cave interiors
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News
No news.
Recent Visitors
Reserved for members.Community Reviews
Show full reviews
Since this site’s inscription in 2023, I had a mental block about it caused by its name. I had no idea what “Evaporitic” meant (the Dutch Wikipedia page referring to this WHS conveniently leaves this word out), and then there is also the always-dreaded “Caves”. I didn’t rush to go there, but a trip with my Art History friends to Northern Italy prompted me to add a day in Bologna to get this one over with.
Speleology is at least half of its OUV, but the horror stories of Tsunami were enough for me to not try that here. So I took a different approach to the Gessi Bolognesi: cruising around the landscape on an e-bike, looking for visible gypsum strata and ‘holes’ in the rock walls.
-- First: Geology for Dummies --
“Evaporitic Karst” just means rock with holes and dents in it (such as caves and sinkholes). They could have easily called the WHS “Gypsum Karst” but to be precise there’s another mineral (anhydrite) in there as well. Both are relatively soft and soluble and thus evaporate easily when in contact with water. Another big word to know in this context is “epigenic” – meaning that they (the gypsum/anhydrite sediment layers) were formed later than the surrounding or underlying rock formations.
-- So I finally figured it out. End of lesson --
Bike rental in Bologna turned out to be a completely different experience from what I had in Japan just 2 …
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I visited this WHS in June 2023. Since I visited before inscription I wasn't sure which components would be inscribed or left out, so to be on the safe side I picked the 200 million year old circa Triassic Gypsums (Gessi Triassici) evaporite karsts around the Alta Valle Secchia component, making sure to visit the Tanone Grande-Tanone Piccolo cave system which is mentioned quite a number of times in the nomination dossier. Not being a speleologist and usually not so comfortable in claustrophobic crawling and messy activities in muddy terrain, my target was to safely get to the entrance of the caves alone and explore a small area which is clearly in the core zone (a headlamp and a hard hat are a must).
Visiting on a sunny summer day, I followed the best stretches of the Sentiero Spallanzani route along the Secchia river streams and stopped at a number of panoramic viewpoints to see the Triassic Gypsums and the Bismantova outcrop of the Reggiano Apennines. Perhaps one of the best panoramic viewpoints, close to the Triassic Gypsums, is known as Ponte della Pianellina where one can gaze at the Monte Rosso, Monte Merlo and Monte Carù slopes together with the U-shaped karst valley, while also cool down in the freezing stream waters. This area is also part of the Parco Nazionale dell'Appennino Tosco-Emiliano and also part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme. It is also a Site of Community Importance and a Zone of Special Protection of …
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Evaporite karst and caves of Emilia Romagna Region: Messinian Gypsum of Bologna
It was rather difficult to grasp the OUV of this nomination, so I thought there was no better way to recognize it than taking a tour of one of the caves.
The Spipola Cave is one of the two main caves in the core zone of this section of the TWHS. After my two failed attempts to take the tour in June and September 2022, I finally managed to take it in the Sunday morning on May 28, 2023. It was the last day of my 18 days trip through the UK, France and Italy, and indeed I had a flight from Bologna back to Wroclaw, Poland, in that afternoon.
Here is more about how I made the reservation:
I started thinking about incorporating this tour into my trip itinerary only after I purchased the ticket for the flight out of Bologna. So I knew that I had only Sunday morning for the tour, and very fortunately the tour was offered only on Sunday mornings. In fact the tour to the Spipola Cave and the tour to the Farneto Cave were offered alternately on almost every weekend morning over the summer.
http://www.parks.it/parco.gessi.bolognesi/man_dettaglio.php?id=104212
https://enteparchi.bo.it/escursione-speleologica-nella-grotta-della-spipola/
When I sent an email to make a reservation, the first thing they said in the reply mail was "Let us see if we can find an English speaking tour guide for that Sunday morning." Within a few …
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Site visited just recently (June, 2022), tentative site, scheduled for inscription in 2023. Since Astraftis described one component - Upper Secchia Valley - I will try to focus on two other areas located close to Bologna - Messinian Gypsum of Bologna and Messinian Gypsum of Zola Predosa. It is always a kind of guessing game for a tentative site, which part will be inscribed (if any) but anyway if in Bologna it may be a nice rest from endless Bolonia’s porticoes
Parco Regionale Gessi Bolognesi e Calanchi dell’Abbadessa (Messinian Gypsum of Bologna), located south – east of Bologna is a regional park. Easy accessible with a car, but I guess there is also a public transport available. While preparing for the trip I studied the maps and found that Farneto Cave may be open to the public. Hence I started exploring the area from parking near the cave (google coordinates 44.43253927452703, 11.404740950820656, it is only 10 km from Bologna) just to realize that the cave is closed and may be visited on a guided tour, later on I found info that may be helpful for future visitors - Visits to the cave are organized from March to November, only upon reservation, and are led by authorized speleologists of the Regional Park Gessi Bolognesi. For further info you can contact tel. +39 051 6254821 or use email: info.parcogessi@enteparchi.bo.it
More information available (park official website):
http://www.parks.it/parco.gessi.bolognesi/Eindex.php
Since the cave was closed I decided to have a short …
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This is to me a bit of a mysterious (tentative) site, and one that I don't know if it will ever manage to make it on the list, although it has potential. But the main reason I decided to write a review for it is that I have a personal connection with this evaporite karst, since I have been visiting one of its components regularly since my childhood: having descent from one of my parents' side from a small village on the hills of Reggio Emilia (the lesser famous cousin of neighbouring Parma and Modena), the gessi triassici ('Triassic gypsums', or better anhydrites) in the Upper Secchia Valley (in the Alto Appennino Tosco-Emiliano national park) are in fact coterminous with one of the major local attractions, the fonti di Poiano ('Poiano springs' - Poiano is the nearest, minuscule village). So my point of view might be subjective, and it is somewhat odd to think that such a familiar and intimate place might one day bask in universal glory. I hope this might help shed some light on this proposal.
So, I can refer to just one component, the "Triassic anhydrites [or, more currently and also on all signs, 'gypsums'] of the Upper Secchia Valley", which however, from the official description, also seems to be given more relevance than the others (it's the only one that is actually explicitly cited there). They are placed along the course of the Secchia river, which is still young and of …
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