45.531° N, 12.736° E
Complete guide
Spiaggia del Mort: beach guide
What the beach is like
Spiaggia del Mort is in the municipality of Jesolo, in the province of Venice, and faces the Adriatic. The Laguna del Mort is a seawater lagoon on the coast of the northern Upper Adriatic. The lagoon is on average about half a metre deep and nowhere deeper than 2 m. It adjoins the last arm of the mouth of the Piave, and the boundary between the municipalities of Jesolo and Eraclea runs along its axis. The Italian Wikipedia gives its area as about 125 hectares, while the English version gives 2.1 km².
Until 5 October 1935 the lagoon was simply the last stretch of the Piave and its mouth. The river ran perpendicular to the coast to within a few hundred metres of the sea and, near the locality of Cortellazzo, turned sharply to the left for about 3 km before flowing into the Adriatic. On that day, at the peak of a flood, the Piave broke through its right bank exactly at the bend and poured straight into the sea, abandoning its old bed. Sand and mud closed the connection with the river, and that last stretch, left without fresh water, was filled only by the incoming tide. Over time the dead branch partly silted up and became the natural habitat of hundreds of sea and lagoon birds. Over the years the lagoon has shrunk and the original mouth has also moved back.
The land around the lagoon is cut off from the surrounding countryside because it is bounded by three watercourses: the Piave, the Livenza and the navigable Revedoli canal. The clayey and sandy banks include coastal dunes, mounds and maritime pine woods, with flora and fauna typical of coastal wetlands.
Getting there
The dead branch of the Piave now flows into the sea opposite the resort of Eraclea Mare, right in front of the small marina. Wikipedia names Eraclea Mare, on the eastern bank of the Piave, as the most convenient starting point for exploring the Mort area. Thanks to the gradual silting, at low tide it is possible to cross the mouth of the Mort and visit the south-eastern shore, which lies in the municipality of Jesolo. From the Jesolo side, direct access is only possible by crossing the river by boat.
Eraclea Mare is 2.2 km north-east of the beach as the crow flies and Cortellazzo 1.5 km to the north-west. For 18 December 2022 the municipality of Jesolo, on its website, announced a clean-up day for the beach of the Laguna del Mort, with the meeting point at the Park Pioppi in Eraclea Mare. A cycle path links Eraclea to Cortellazzo along the traces of old lagoon canals and ends at the old mouth of the Piave, now the nature oasis of the Laguna del Mort. With a 2023 resolution the Jesolo municipal administration approved a project for the Borgo della pesca of Cortellazzo which includes, among other things, a cycle path along via Massaua and a link of the cycle route towards the Laguna del Mort. Bus line number 2 runs from the bus station in piazza Marconi-Drago eastwards to Cortellazzo.
When to go
The beach faces south-east. With the easterly levante, the south-easterly sirocco (scirocco) and the southerly ostro, the wind blows in from the sea and the beach is exposed to waves. With the northerly tramontana, the westerly ponente and the north-westerly mistral (maestrale), the wind blows from the land and the sea close to the shore is more sheltered. The north-easterly grecale and the south-westerly libeccio strike it from the side. This is an indication based on the orientation of the coast, not a forecast.
In summer many naturists come to the beach.
Seabed and sea
The beach is sandy. In the 2025 season the European Environment Agency (EEA) rated the bathing water quality at the reference sampling point for the beach as excellent. On 17 May 2007 the beach of Eracleamare and of the Laguna del Mort received the Blue Flag from the FEE for the quality of the sea in front of it. In the lagoon, the submerged flora consists mainly of Zostera marina and various species of algae. On the dunes, besides a planted stand of pines and junipers, Cakile maritima and Ammophila arenaria grow, especially in the part most exposed to the sea.
Facilities and free beach
In May 2011 part of this beach, the area closest to the mouths of the Piave, officially became a naturist area by a resolution of the municipality of Jesolo. The beach has been used by naturists for over 30 years. OpenStreetMap has no record of beach establishments, parking, showers or accessibility data for this beach.
Rules and protected areas
The Laguna del Mort and the maritime pine wood of Eracleamare have been designated a Site of Community Importance, proposed by a regional government resolution of 6 August 2004. In 2022, on the website of the municipality of Jesolo, the lagoon was described as a site of community importance in the Natura 2000 network and the subject of the Life Redune project, promoted by Legambiente Veneto Orientale in cooperation with the municipality. The Kentish plover, Cetti's warbler and the zitting cisticola nest in the area. The whole wetland is a stopover for many species of migrating birds, including mallard, teal, garganey, pintail, wigeon and pochard. Amphibians and reptiles also live in the area, and the asp viper has rarely been sighted.
Nearby
The north-western side of the lagoon, called Valle Ossi, lies instead in the municipality of Eraclea and is covered by a pine wood that still has no tourist development. According to Wikipedia, the area was recently the target of an attempted large-scale property speculation, which was averted first by the introduction of naturism and then by a criminal investigation involving local politicians. In 2003 Legambiente named the peninsula that separates the lagoon from the sea, together with its beach, as one of the 11 most beautiful beaches in Italy.
The origins of the historic core of Cortellazzo date back to 1600, when the Serenissima Republic finished digging the Cavetta canal. Spiaggia di Duna Verde, a sandy beach, is 5.3 km to the north-east as the crow flies. In the opposite direction, Spiaggia di Lido di Jesolo is 7.6 km to the south-west as the crow flies. The beach of Lido di Jesolo stretches for about 12 km between the mouth of the Sile and that of the Piave. Caorle is 13.9 km to the north-east as the crow flies.
Sources
- QualeSpiaggia — open data spiagge (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikipedia (it) — Laguna del Mort
- Wikipedia (en) — Laguna del Mort
- OpenStreetMap
- Puliamo la spiaggia della laguna del Mort - Comune di Jesolo
- Wikivoyage (it) — Jesolo
- Borgo della pesca di Cortellazzo - Comune di Jesolo
- Wikivoyage (en) — Jesolo
- EEA — Bathing water quality 2025 (IT005027019002)