The Bather Monument
The Modern Symbol of Vasto on the Ruins of the Roman Port
The Bather Monument, standing on the Scaramuzza rock where the Gulf of Vasto meets the rocky stretch now known as the Trabocchi Coast, is considered the main symbol of Vasto today. However, its history and that of the surrounding environment speak of a story that spans three thousand years.
The bronze statue, created by the artist Aldo D’Adamo from Ortona, was commissioned by the municipality of Vasto and inaugurated in 1979. It stands at 3.60 meters tall and weighs about half a ton. It was conceived as a promotional tool for Vasto as a seaside destination and, in a way, can be seen as the sculptural equivalent of the postcards that were popular in the 1970s, depicting beautiful bikini-clad girls on the beach.
At the time, the location seemed perfect for such a celebration, as it marked the beginning of the bathing area and was leased to beach resorts. This stretch, from the beginning of the Gulf of Vasto, renamed the “Golden Gulf,” to the pier, encompassed about one kilometer of coastline out of the nineteen that make up the municipal territory, representing the tourist offering of the city of Vasto.
Today, such an initiative would certainly be highly controversial. However, the sensibilities of the time found it entirely agreeable, and the bather, affectionately called “Sirenetta” (Little Mermaid) by the people of Vasto, has since been reproduced on hundreds of different mediums, to the point that no one would think to challenge its prominence.
Yet, it is worth reflecting on how this representation of beach tourism has overshadowed other symbols. Let’s consider Neptune in the mosaic of the Roman Baths, which would be far more deserving of testifying to the historical and cultural greatness of Vasto, which is much more than just a beach for sunbathing!
The most amusing aspect is that the Bather Monument doesn’t even stand in just any place but in the stretch of sea where ruins, likely from the Roman era, are still visible and now called the “Underwater Archaeological Park of Vasto.”
The walls emerging from the sandy seabed are easily visible from the promenade on days when the sea is clear. In fact, the area is the mouth of the Angrella stream, where the first landing of Vasto was located, between the rock known as Trave and the Scaramuzza rock. According to legend, it was there that Diomedes landed, fleeing from the destruction of Troy to found the ancient Histon about three thousand years ago. And it is also in that location that a port structure developed in Roman times and later in the medieval period, likely active until the 16th century.
Today, having long lost its function as a landing point, it can be said that even the bathing season in this area is fading, as beachgoers have shifted and spread along the entire coast. The Bather Monument thus becomes a sentinel that connects the Golden Gulf with the Trabocchi Coast and assumes a historical value that speaks of a seemingly recent but already quite distant time.
