COMACCHIO, a town of Emilia, Italy, province of Ferrara, 3om. E.S.E. by road from the town of Ferrara, on the level of the sea, in the centre of the lagoon of Valli di Comacchio, just north of the present mouth of the Reno. Pop. (1931) 8,503 (town); 12,609 (commune). It is built on 13 different islets, joined by bridges, and its industries are fisheries and salt-works. Comacchio appears as a city in the 6th century, a fortress owing to its central position in the centre of the lagoons. It was included in the "donation of Pippin"; it was taken by the Venetians in 854, but afterwards came under the archbishops of Ravenna; in 1299 it came under the house of Este. In 1597 it was claimed by Clement VIII. as a vacant fief. See also SPINA.
See A. Beltramelli, Da Comacchio ad Argenta (Bergamo, Arti Grafiche, 1905, well illustrated) .